DD 203 Ch 28

Chapter 28

The prince was dead.

I stared down at his lifeless body for a moment, blinking and looking up. I realized that the sounds of combat around me had died down and my hearing hadn’t given out. I bent down and picked up his CID, finding the device was not locked. Quickly swiping through his inventory, my jaw tightened as I saw just how much food he had squirreled away, as well as loot for every level from our current one to 50. 

He had everything he needed to keep himself well-equipped, not to mention a few items as high as level 55, like that bow he had used to shoot at me. The prince wasn't carrying around much cash, but the value of the equipment in his CID was extraordinary. 

Professor Gafar, still bleeding terribly from the neck, looked at the CID in my hands. His eyes narrowed and focused on the CID. "Why don't you hand that over?" The professor wheezed.

It was a minor miracle that he was still alive. Then again, high level adventurers could survive terrible monsters, why not a slice to the neck? 

"I don't think so." I took the CID and stuffed it in my pocket. I glanced at him before casting my gaze over the rest of the royal college. "Help us finish up with the dwarves and the naga, and I won't kill you." I put steel in my voice, knowing I would rather have their help with the dwarves.

"Then you'll give us the CID?" Gafar asked. 

I snorted, "No, you've lost that. You've lost the right to ask anything of me. Even if you bent over and scraped your forehead across the sand, I wouldn't give you my piss if you were dehydrated in this desert." 

The professor's jaw tightened, and it looked like for a moment he was going to attack me.

 However, several of the royal college students shifted and began attacking the dwarves.

As soon as I didn't feel like I had to worry about a spell hitting me in the back, I shot across the sand to Penny, who had a hole gaping in the center of her chest. I slugged back a mana potion and used Charlotte's [Revive]. Picking her up in my arms with a smirk on my face, I helped her recover from death. "We've got to stop meeting this way, Penny."

She blinked away the slight confusion that often accompanied being revived. It was usually even worse when the adventurer found themselves in a slightly different place than where they had died.

"Huh?" Penny asked oh-so-intelligently. 

"The prince used a high-level bow and tried to snipe me," I pointed out to the side where the prince was no longer a problem. "You ended up taking the arrow instead of me. First it was a dwarven spear, now an arrogant prince's arrow." I patted her on the shoulder. "I should really keep you around. You're the perfect tank," I chuckled.

This was the second time she had taken a surprise attack for me.

Penny blushed, "Yes, I think you should keep me around. Keep me a lot closer," she said, summoning the courage for those words. 

I kissed her on top of the head. "We'll have to work on that later. For now, I think we need to finish up. What do you say?" I stood up and offered her a hand.

She grabbed my wrist and helped me pull her off the ground, moving to pick up her sword that was laying in the sand. She had dropped the weapon when she’d been killed.

"I don't suppose you left a piece of the prince for me to hack apart, do you?" She chuckled, looking around and taking stock of the scene. Her eyes settled on the prince's form, his head gone, and both of his hands missing. She let out a soft whistle, "Alright, you did a number on him. I think I can be satisfied with that death."

“Good. Now, we aren’t completely done yet.” I glanced over, but the current battles with the dwarves seemed to be going okay. And I did not currently have the mana needed to rush back into battle. Me staying on my feet was a priority to keep the Royal College and Gafar in check.

“You’re right about that.” Penny blushed. “You owe me two debts. Careful, I might just cash those in.” She fumbled with the words.

“I’m sure they’ll be terribly hard.” My voice dripped with sarcasm. “Anything you want Penny.”

Her eyes went wide with that. “Anything?”

“Within reason.” I winked.

My flirtatious moment with Penny was interrupted by the gurgle of blood. Gafar clutched at his neck, blood pooling out between his fingers.

Felin stood not far away, twirling her spear before sticking the butt in the sand.

I didn't even bat an eyelash seeing her kill him. 

"That protected the pride," Felin pronounced, even as some of the Royal Academy students hesitated in their continued attack on the dwarves.

I hadn't killed him outright, knowing that I didn't want to have to kill the entire Royal College. At the same time, sending them off without any food was likely sending them to their deaths. That wasn't on my hands, and I wouldn't have to struggle to potentially risk any more of my class to kill them.

However, I was happy to see Gafar no longer a problem.

"Fair enough, Felin." I started walking towards the remainder of the fight.

The specters that I had left behind had already been popped by the existing naga, but the dwarven queen specter behind me thundered into the battle like a bull in a china shop. The specters did not come with any way to control them, only fighting things hostile to me nearby. Once again, the dungeon marveled me with its ability to anticipate who and what was my enemy. 

The dwarves were in shambles without their queen. They lost any semblance of coordination. Meanwhile, the naga ranks had thinned to the point that with the addition of the Royal College, they were petering out, smashed between us and Machen, holding the boss doors.

The berserker was caked in blood, one of his eyes sealed shut, even as heals continued to flash upon his skin. 

Des fell into stride next to me. "You know, I kinda wanted to kill Gafar," she said, twirling a wicked dagger in her hand. "He would make a wonderful sacrifice. You know, I have more spells than that grimoire of mine.”

“The one you sealed the demon lord inside of me using?” We hadn’t used that in some time.

"Yes, what was his name again?" Des asked playfully. 

"He didn't give you his name," I said, swearing to myself I would never utter the words 'Demon Lord Snu Snu' aloud. As if my thoughts of him were stirring him, I felt pressure on my pelvis, his seal growing warm as we crossed the boss doors and headed down the steps to the safe zone.

It might not be a bad idea to have Des check it again, though she’d think I was just trying to get her alone.

I pushed that thought from my mind, wanting to get down to the safe zone and see how the battle was doing on the other side.

I stepped out onto the safe zone floor and saw Trusk College rifling through only a dozen naga corpses. I didn't even see a matriarch among them.

It seemed there wasn’t much left to do, which I was all for given my current mana levels. 

I cast a glance at Marin in question.

She shrugged. "Once we got down the stairs, they weren't very tough," she pointed around. "I think they were servants," she said, "but we didn't see a matriarch." 

I rubbed my chin, wondering if the matriarch had fled. Certainly, she was in a disadvantageous position with the dwarven queen. Outside the safe zone, her naga may have been buying her time to escape. 

"And the dwarves that came through in the battering ram?" I asked. 

Marin pointed to a large pile of smoldering somethings that a fire elemental was still dancing on top of. "Taken care of." One of her dragons was flying this way, while another two were patrolling the top of the safe zone.

It seemed that this group had the safe zone well in hand and under their control. With the battle above wrapping up, we had succeeded.

"I was thinking we should rest up," she pointed at the safe zone.

The nagas had huts set up throughout the space. And while they weren't anything terrible, I still did not feel entirely comfortable using them. Instead, I thought I would just use my own tent.

"I think after this fight, it would be good to take a rest. If nothing else, make sure everyone is healed up and recovered before pushing deeper." I couldn't help but reach into my pocket and check to make sure the prince's CID was still there.

"Perfect." Marin clapped her hands and turned around to address the rest of her college. "Everyone, set up your tents. We are going to stay here tonight." She moved excitedly through the crowd, talking to them and encouraging them after the fight. 

I shook my head at Marin’s energy. My own was dropping quickly as I came down from the high of battle.

The rest of Haylon made their way down the steps, a few of them still shaking off the disorientation of being resurrected. It seemed the battle above had ended.

Candice walked up to me. "Ken, what do we do about the Royal College?" she asked. 

"I told them that they're not welcome. If they wish to use the safe zone, they can. However, don't let them camp next to us and keep a watch. I think I would like to take a small group down to the next floor and scout ahead." 

Candice nodded at that, turning around and quickly organizing Haylon students.

I turned to look at the far end of the safe zone and the other stairs heading down. Penny must have seen my look. She made her way over to me, sword still in her hand. Although the thought struck me that she might be about to cash in one of the debts I owed her.

"If you're going down, I’ll take a look with you. I hope it's a jungle or something that promises plenty of food," she said, licking her lips. 

I grunted in agreement, though I knew that the dungeon wouldn't always be so accommodating. But still, one could hope. 

Suddenly, Harley started shouting, holding something up in her hands. I glanced at the bard with a frown. She held a little magical pouch, similar to the one that Felin kept her things in, and she opened it wide, digging around inside, sticking her arm all the way to the elbow before she pulled out a giant clump of seaweed. 

"Ken! They have food!" Harley danced and began upending the bag. Out came all sorts of gear, weapons, and other dungeon items. But what we were all focused on was the skinned and deboned fish filets, possibly something like eel, and plenty of seaweed. 

Fayeth's eyes were like two brilliant stars. "Sushi," she said, putting the items together. 

"We're a little light on rice," I told Fayeth. 

She waved her hand in dismissal. "You can turn almost any vegetable into rice." 

I frowned, not liking her desecrating my sacred rice, but understanding, nonetheless, that she would experiment and try to make something that at least could casually pass as rice. 

Penny nudged me. "Don't look too disappointed. She cooks good food." 

"Yeah, I just have a thing about rice," I told her, and started walking across the safe zone, curious about what I would find when we scouted.

I didn't get very far before Charlotte caught up with Bun-Bun, the druid unwilling to leave my side.

She did not ask any questions as we moved through the safe zone. I walked down the steps, the environment growing hotter as we walked, only to open up to a black, craggy expanse with lava seeping out of gouges in the surface. I had a very bad feeling about our prospects for food down in this new environment. 

A woman rose up and turned around, standing up as we got to the bottom of the steps. She was human enough that I blinked, wondering if there were other people stuck down here.

"Someone's here," Penny said, only for me to realize the woman had a pair of black horns that had blended in with the environment. As she stood, the horns passed by some of the red light coming from a nearby flow of lava. 

The demoness laughed, a seductive chuckle and spun a whip above her head, lashing out at the ground as four black lumps that had been hidden amongst the volcanic rock rose. Each of them were quadrupedal creatures. They looked something like pigs with skin of broken black slate. They even let out an oinking squeal as they charged our group. 

Penny stepped up first, coating herself in ice armor as she sprayed ice upon the four oncoming demonic pigs and out past them to the demonic woman. The woman lashed her whip at Penny, giggling, before stepping close enough to try and hit Penny with the whip. 

Most of the time when there was a monster type where one was clearly in control of the others, it was best to kill the controller first.

I activated [Shadow Ambush], appearing behind the female demon. My blade flashed out as I began to put my all into attacking her.

Her red skin reminded me of Des when she had used her [Metamorphosis] in the past. The monster turned, blowing me a kiss that expanded into a giant heart and tried to envelop me. 

However, I used [Absorb] to remove the ability and continued to attack her using [Discharge] the next time she brought her hands to her lips to blow a kiss. 

Having pulled aggro off of Penny, I was on my own to dodge the obsidian whip that flashed back and forth, trying to rip off my flesh. The demoness managed to hit me once.

However, this monster was unfortunately at a disadvantage; I had a particular mastery in dodging whips. Having gone through the gauntlet that was training with Crimson, I understood how a whip moved and was able to flow out of her attacks or take those away from the tip so that it did not do too much damage. 

The demon, who I was now thinking of as a Succubus since she had tried to attack me by blowing a kiss, had her eyes glow red and whipped one of the pigs, causing it to swell.

The fragments of rock that made up its hide expanded to a bright red, almost magma-like flesh underneath. However, despite her enraging one of the pigs, she died a moment later.

I blinked, not used to how weak non-raid monsters were for a moment. 

Charlotte was busy keeping Penny alive, and I ducked behind the pigs, cutting into them. With a flash of my blades, I quickly diced them until all four exploded and I had a crew of specters standing at the ready. 

"Come on," Penny muttered in prayer as she waved her hand through the smoke, trying to clear it and see the loot below. In an unlikely moment of luck, there were two packages of what the CID confirmed as demonic boar meat laying on the ground. Penny chuckled and picked them up. 

"We should go give them to Fayeth and see what she can make with them." I said.

"What's that?" Penny pointed behind me, and I picked up a skill book before handing it off to her. 

"It's a garbage skill," I said.

Penny looked at it and then, while blushing, tucked it into her CID. "It's not a garbage skill," she refuted. "Don't worry. I'll sell it and split the difference with you later." 

I thought [Warm Embrace] wasn’t particularly useful, but if others wanted to pay for it, they were free to do so.

"Well, at least we confirmed there's food to be had on this floor," I smiled at Penny. "Let's head back up and tell everyone the good news." 

Before we left the floor, I asked [Eyes of Wisdom], which was the way back to humanity, and a blue line trailed across the floor through this floor of the dungeon. It seemed we would have to dive deeper if we were to go back up and find Earth. 

Following Penny and Charlotte back to the safe zone, I found Penny already holding up the packages of meat, getting the rest of the students excited that we might be able to fill our CIDs with food once again. 

"As Felin might say, the Great One provides," I said, doing my best impression of the Nekorian.

But I also knew that we would have a hard road ahead of us as we tried to descend through the dungeon without the support of Earth behind us. 

My thoughts flickered back to Crimson and I found myself wondering what she might be doing at that moment. 

At this point, I was seriously starting to miss her and even her near torturous training. Because if it wasn't for all the training she'd put us through, we likely wouldn't be in as stable a position as we were now. Heck, when we found each other again, I might ask her to make it harder. 

I chuckled at the thought and joined the rest of the students in the safe zone as we worked to prepare ourselves for whatever we would face next on our way home.