DAKU
"Are you sure this would work?" Shino asked, wearing a doubting look.
"We can still try," I replied.
Shino faced the church in front of us and held out her staff horizontally with her left hand. Her right hand hovered near the staff's crystal which glowed in white afterward.
A few seconds later, the whole church was enclosed inside a translucent cube of protective energy. Its appearance was my clue that it was my turn to do my job.
I walked close to the barrier and placed both of my hands on it. The barrier didn't feel solid at all, but the slight resistance of the energy told me that it was there.
I closed both of my eyes and focused on injecting my healing magic into the barrier. When I felt like it was working, I opened my eyes and watched how my green healing magic spread throughout the barrier like fire. It took a couple of minutes before the whole barrier became green.
"I didn't expect it to work," Shino commented as she trailed her eyes on the barrier. Her orbs of vision glimmered as if she saw something spectacular.
"Me neither," I replied. I was kind of proud of myself for what I had done. It was my first time doing this, and it worked immediately on my first try.
"Thank you for this, Daku. Now, we don't have to worry about the miasma making someone sick again," Shino said while giving her sweetest smile.
"No problem. Though I'm not sure how long it will last."
"True. I hope they can finish it as soon as possible," Shino prayed, referring to her team, who were currently conquering the dungeon.
"Speaking of the dungeon, we should get going as well. We still have some exploring to do for our employer."
Kenshi and I bid farewell to Shino and to the villagers, and headed straight to the dungeon. As we were getting closer and closer to it, the miasma became thicker and thicker. It wasn't really hard to breathe though but our mind thought that it was so our body did the same.
But if there were someone who was having a hard time with the miasma, it was Kenshi. He was silent since we started walking towards the dungeon and his face showed discomfort: clenched jaws, furrowed eyebrows, and sweaty forehead. I wanted to ask him if he was okay but I knew he would just lie.
After five minutes of trudging through the thick mist, we finally arrived at the dungeon's entrance. Unlike other dungeons, this one was pretty unique and classy. The entrance looked more like a temple because of its structure and the sculpted designs shouted artistry and luxury. One would mistook it as a wealthy man's property because of how it looked.
"Are you sure this is a dungeon?" I asked in disbelief.
"This is my first time seeing a dungeon like this as well. The ones that I used to raid were ruins and caves."
"Well, there's no doubt that this is the dungeon because look," I pointed to the base of the structure where the thicker root-like tendril of purple sprouted.
"Let's not waste more time. Keiro and his team are probably fighting one of the Dark Orb wielders right now."
I agreed with Kenshi and decided to approach the door first. The moment my hand touched the door, I suddenly felt an ominous sensation as if it was telling me that something bad was about to happen.
I ignored it and shoved the door to open, releasing a spooky sound or metal rubbing each other. Behind it was darkness and it was so dark that even the light from the outside couldn't illuminate the space it occupied.
I tried to envelop my body with healing magic, hoping that its green glow would light up the room, but I was mistaken. Even Kenshi's fire magic could only illuminate our faces and portions of our bodies.
According to what I'd read, dungeons could manifest differently from each other. One could trap you in a maze, kill you like a gladiator inside an arena full of monsters, or bewitch you with illusion magic. There were also dungeons that had multiple floors, and the difficulty increased as you went deeper.
We didn't know what this dungeon could do to us but one thing was for sure, we wouldn't like it.
"Stay close to me," Kenshi suddenly said, and I jumped in surprise when something held my hand. With only Kenshi by my side, I concluded that it was his hand tightly clasping mine. "We can't afford to lose one another."
Although this was weird and awkward for me, Kenshi was right, and I had no choice but to let him hold my hand. We continued walking, and even if I couldn't see it, I was pretty sure the two of us looked like a couple now.
We were in this position for almost half an hour before we both stopped upon noticing a faint light ahead of us. It could be an exit or a source of light. To find out, we continued to walk until we found ourselves in a vast cavern illuminated by huge crystals of glowing sapphires.
Huge chunks of it were poking on the edges of the cavern, like spikes of ice. At the center of this space was an elevation. Kenshi and I were about to approach it when we heard multiple footsteps behind us.
When we turned around to see it, my mind stopped working when we saw Keiro and his party emerge from the darkness we came from. Kenshi and I shared a look, both perplexed by what was happening.
"Someone is here before us," one of them said and it was a guy carrying a bow. Probably a marksman.
"Wait, isn't that Daku and Kenshi?" another one asked, and it was a mage based on his grimoire hanging on his hips.
I shifted my eyes to Keiro, and I could tell that he was not happy to see us.
"What are you two doing here? Are you here to conquer this dungeon before us? Did you know that what you're doing is stealing? Only one party could conquer a dungeon unless it was a joint one, and don't ever think I would be working with you," Keiro ranted.
"You talk too much," Kenshi commented which made Keiro even more annoyed.
So I decided to butt in and explain the situation. "We're here for a different reason, Keiro. We're just here to explore this dungeon. We have the permit."
"Tsk. You better not slow us down."
"Hey, boss, aren't you wondering? We entered the dungeon the moment we found it but Kenshi and Daku got here first than us. Let's just say that they began their journey a day after we depart the city, they are still one-day behind us. But now, we were the ones who got left behind," the tank explained that trigger my curiousity too.
"He's right, boss. It was as if we'd been walking in that darkness for two days."
"We don't have time to think about that. What's important is that we are already out of that scary place. Now, where's the boss so we can get the rewards?"
Keiro and his party approached the elevation at the center. Keiro stepped on it while his team wandered their eyes to observe for possible reactions.
"Nothing is happening, boss," the marksman announced.
"Maybe if I—" Keiro suddenly pierced his sword into the platform he was stepping on, but still, no reaction. "Come on! I'm itching to get my rewards! Hello! Whoever is the boss of this dungeon, show yourself already! Don't be a coward! I promise. It'll be painless!"
"Boss!" the mage shouted while pointing at the ground underneath Keiro. The vanguard grabbed his leader away from it just in time for a large chunk of sapphire crystal to sprout. Inside the crystal was a black cylindrical object.
"Argh!" Kenshi grunted while holding his chest and kneeling.
I knelt to match his height and asked, "What happened, Kenshi?"
"It h-hurts," Kenshi mumbled. He was wincing in pain, and I bet it came from his chest. "It feels l-like someone is s-stabbing my he-heart."
"Something is coming!" the mage screamed, and the ground suddenly exploded, clouding our vision with dust. When it subsided, it revealed a gigantic centipede imbued with Evil Remnants. "A corrupted being!"
"Prepare to engage!" Keiro ordered while holding his sword.
The marksman readied his bow and arrows, along with the mage with his grimoire floating in front of him. Keiro initiated the attack and swung his sword at the enemy, only to get deflected by the enemy's thick scales.
"Watch out, boss!"
The critter launched itself at Keiro, but he evaded it, thanks to his mage, who supported him with Haste magic. The marksman released three arrows, but just like Keiro's attack, it was futile.
"We should help them," Kenshi suggested. Even though he was still in pain, he stood and unsheathed his sword. "Back me up."
Kenshi used Vigor on himself while I gave him the Haste. With both his strength and speed boosted, he attacked the centipede head-on. But there was no difference in his attack at all. The scales of the enemy were too thick for their mere swords.
"Stay out of this, you two! This is our fight!" Keiro ordered, and I couldn't help but feel mad at him.
"We're just trying to help, Keiro! It's pretty obvious that you can't defeat that monster!"
"And what made you think you two could defeat that?!"
"I don't! What I'm trying to say is that we have to fucking work together, you idiot!"
"He's right, boss!" the marksman agreed. "Even if they contributed to the fight, the rewards still belong to us since they're just explorers."
I couldn't believe the rewards were all they could have thought of. Let's just hope that their greediness won't kill them.
The creature let out a high-pitched screech resonating with the crystals around us. The crystal vibrated and suddenly turned purple. What came next was something unexpected: an energy orb was forming at the mouth of the monster, gathering energy from the nearby crystals. The orb grew in size until it stopped growing.
And my brain seemed to have predicted its next move when my mouth shouted, "Take cover!"
Kenshi hopped a few times and landed beside me while Keiro and the marksman ran close to their mage friend. In just the blink of an eye, the monster released the orb in our direction and detonated when it hit the ground.
A concentrated energy blast spread throughout the cavern destroying everything in its path, except for all of us who were protected by a barrier.
Knowing that its attack failed to kill all of us, the creature let out another scream of annoyance. It was pretty annoyed that its killing intent tripled.
"Keiro!" Kenshi called out to him. "Do you see those spaces between each of its scales? That's where you will attack him! I will distract him to expose those spaces!"
"Don't tell me what to do—"
"Just fucking do what he says, you dumbass!" I protested. This man was really getting on my nerves. Couldn't he tell us the situation we're in right now? We were facing a dungeon's boss and that alone is one thing. But it was not just any dungeon boss but a corrupted one as well. And the latter was a completely different story.
"Riko, support Keiro. Dai and I will go help Kenshi with the distraction," the marksman suggested.
"Copy that, Arano!" Riko agreed and placed his hand above his grimoire.
"Just give everything you've got! Don't be afraid of getting hurt. We have the best healer in this room," Kenshi boasted.
"Don't worry, everyone. If there's one thing that I'm good at, it was healing you all as if you weren't hurt in the first place."