Chapter 11: Out of the Frying Pan…?
Chapter 11: Out of the Frying Pan…?
“MINA, it went your way!” Leo shouted to the Thief with her back up against his.
“On it!” Mina bent her knees and glared at the monsters circling them. About ten adhesive class monsters, slimes, had them surrounded.
They’re even more disgusting when they show up stuck together. Scrunching her nose, Mina sliced through the slimy projectiles launched at her by the sticky, round balls. The stone floor sizzled and melted away under the two halves of the fallen projectile. Mina blanched and cringed.
They spit highly acidic mucus! Yuck! One hit and you’re out! My armor will easily melt off, ugh. Facing forward, Mina scanned the area behind her.
Near the doorway, directly opposite of her current position, Louis had just finished casting a confusion spell on the slimes. Dazed by its effects, a slime bounced into the gutter. There was something comedic about the slime happily bouncing into a black hole.
Neat. Minstrels have a surprisingly wide variety of spells.
Louis’s spells inflicted status effects rather than direct damage. Minstrels were especially useful in parties taking on powerful monsters because they wore down the monster’s defenses, removed their positive status bonuses, and weakened it for the DPS classes to sweep in and inflict heavy damage without taking many hits themselves.
Minstrels needed to memorize each and every elaborate spell incantation, and their skills weren’t as showy as a Mage’s or instantly useful as a Priest’s, so few people chose that particular class. Louis had to have gone through years of training with the plethora of spells he knew.
He’s always joking around, but he’s a hard worker at heart.
Louis normally acted like a clown, but behind that wisecracking exterior was a man who put in twice as much work as everyone else. Yet he never let anyone see him trying. Maybe he couldn’t let go of his pride as a nobleman.
Thinking about him in that light made his personality—quirks and all—a lot more appealing to Mina.
Geh! Now I just sound like a girl crushing on him! Mina stamped her feet to squash her own conclusion even though she was in the middle of dodging slime spit.
Her thoughts kept going back to him suavely cheering her up and putting himself in danger to protect her. He sure seemed to be paying a lot of attention to her, too.
Every time he did something for her it brought a giddy grin to her face and filled her with the hope he didn’t do the same for others. His actions set her heart aflutter with unexpected feelings.
Y-Yeah, right! Like hell I’m gonna admit that! Me, falling for a clown like him? Not in a million years!
Her eyes locked with Louis’s just as she was becoming frustrated with her feelings for him. Unaware of her mental state, his handsome face broke into a teasing smile when he saw her.
“Having problems there, Mina? You’ve stopped fighting! Mayhap you’ve become smitten with my magnificently beautiful spells?” Louis drawled in his perfected narcissist tone.
Mina pitched forward. He always ruins his cool moments with lines like this!
“In your dreams, buddy! I’d fall for the slimes’ acid attacks before your magic!”
He’d be a great guy if he wasn’t so in love with himself.
Leo chuckled and quickly counted the remaining slimes. “We’ve chiseled down their numbers, so I’ll clean up the rest with my spell. You might wanna stand back if you don’t wanna get caught up in it.” He started drawing a magic circle in the air with his long fingers.
All the air in the room pulled toward him in waves. The elements existing around them were gathering at his fingertips to fulfill his spell. He was like a magnet for the elements.
Better stay out of his way! Mina silently hopped several feet away from Leo, careful not to disturb his concentration. Watching him elegantly casting the spell from a distance left her speechless. His fingers accurately traced several circles and the ancient script within them as if the air was his canvas.
Each line he drew glowed red—a sign he was casting a fire spell. Adhesive class monsters were weak to fire.
It should’ve been an impossible feat casting any fire-based spells when water literally oozed from the walls. Seeing as he continued chanting with his calm confidence, the lack of fire element wasn’t a problem for Leo.
Finishing his incantation with graceful elegance, Leo raised his right hand within the blinding light surrounding him. He swiped his hand through the bedazzling circle, erasing it.
“One hit from this and slimes are toast. Eat fire, slimeballs!” Leo jeered, holding his right palm out.
Fireballs rained down on the slimes in thunderous succession. Ringing filled Mina’s ears.
He doesn’t hold back! She had to cover her ears to protect them from the roaring explosions.
Goo torn from the slimes’ bodies upon impact splattered at her feet. Seeing as the goo was scorched black, the slimes were being pulverized and burnt alive at the same time. Once the fireworks display ended, white smoke hung in the air with a hiss. The smoke gradually cleared, revealing only colorful splatter marks on the ground where the slimes had been obliterated. It almost looked like someone had painted the room with dried up jelly.
“Dang, they fry up easy!” Leo nonchalantly clapped his hands together and rolled his shoulders.
H-His spells always seem like cheating…
Mina was floored by the way Leo launched high-tier spells one after the other without breaking into a sweat. He was awesome, but he didn’t brag or lord it over them. Were all Mages this powerful?
No, Mina had partied with several dozen different Mages while questing, and not a single one could use multiple high-tier spells in a row, if any at all.
He’s in a class of his own.
The world extolled Leo Gaines as a genius Mage—and it appeared they weren’t exaggerating. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity to fight alongside a record-setting Mage.
Mina spun the dagger in her right hand and sheathed it behind her back. Louis strapped the gittern to his back and walked over to Leo in the center of the room.
“Leo, Mina, you both did great. Especially you, Leo. As a fellow Lunar Magic user, I learned a lot from your spell’s great éclat.”
“Thanks, Louis. You cast some awesomely refined spells as well. I’ve heard that Minstrels must have a solid understanding of magic theory to properly cast a status effect or else they’ll misfire.”
“My talent with magic pales in comparison to yours. By the way, I must ask: what is the best order to draw the magic circle for the fireball spell you used?”
“Oh, you start with—”
“Whoa, hold your horses, boys.” Mina sprinted over to the Lunar Magic nerds, desperate to stop them before they delved into a deep discussion.
No doubt about it, two lovers of magic like them wouldn’t stop talking once they got started. They had to regroup with Aki and Elias pronto—now wasn’t the time for idle chatter.
Mina threw herself between them and spread out her arms. “Guys, you can talk your hearts out once this Quest is over! Fun conversations aside, how are you two doing on magic? You should probably start conserving for the battles ahead…”
While that sounded good in theory, the monsters were growing stronger the deeper they went—reducing the number of encounters was about the only option to conserve their magic.
Judging from the rising monster levels, the king of the ruins—the dungeon’s boss—was likely up ahead. They had simply been pushing deeper and deeper into the ruins in hopes of meeting up with Elias and Aki, although the scenery never changed despite progressively descending underground. They were still on that straight path flanked by a deep gutter.
Are we really making progress? Mina was growing restless thinking they were looping around the same path.
Leo scratched the back of his head. “Well, it doesn’t hurt to be conservative. Things might get tough later if we don’t leave a little magic in the tank. Though we’ve been goin’ at this for a while without reaching the end. Maybe we should just take a leap of faith into the pit?” Sighing, he took a step forward to peer into the gutter near the wall.
Something clicked under his toes and a piece of the stone floor lowered. The color drained from their faces.
“…H-Hey, Leo?” Mina warily called out when he froze up on top of the indented stone. “Did you just step on something…?”
“…I-I might’ve.”
“Don’t sound so unsure! You totally stepped on it! A trap was definitely triggered just now!”
“Don’t blame me! I didn’t see it there! What was I supposed to do?”
“Lame excuse! Traps are meant to be hidden!”
Louis pulled Mina and Leo apart and shouted, “Now’s not the time to debate! I hear something rumbling behind—”
Tremors and the sound of a gigantic stone rolling grew louder behind them. Hoping it was just their imagination, they fearfully looked back—a giant boulder, only slightly smaller than the passageway, was rolling masterfully down the straight path at breakneck speed.
Oh my Goddess!
Mina, Leo, and Louis flinched and took off running in the opposite direction of the incoming boulder.
“I can’t believe they went with such a classic trap!” Leo’s face spasmed as he sprinted for his life.
“Many still believe the classics are the best!” Louis noted.
“Hey, you guys, quit enjoying yourselves and come up with a plan!” Mina screamed.
Can we do anything to stop the boulder or destroy it? Mina racked her brain as she fled. My dagger and knives won’t do squat. Maybe a spell could do the trick?
“I’ve got it!” Mina cried out from where she ran in front of the guys. “Magic! Use magic, Leo! Can’t you blast that boulder to smithereens with your nifty spells?!”
The boulder was a pebble before Leo’s super magic.
Leo stiffly shook his head behind her, the color leeching from his face. “I can’t! The boulder is comin’ too fast! I’ll be squashed flat before I can finish the spell!”
“Fascinating. So even your rapid-fire incantations aren’t fast enough. Outrunning it is our best bet! Run like your life depends on it!” Louis bellowed.
Mina and Leo had no better plan, so the three of them ran like the wind. If they could only make it into the next room, the boulder should get stuck in the doorway.
Possessing the highest agility, Thief Mina ran several feet in front of Leo, with Louis trailing behind them both.
Is Louis going to be okay?!
Mina activated her monster detection skill to alert her about any hidden monsters ahead while worrying about Louis falling behind. Magic classes such as Mages and Minstrels had much lower physical stats than a physical damage dealer like Mina. The more they raised their intelligence stats the more difficult it became for them to level up their stamina and agility.
Leo fell into a category of his own with that six-pack of his that could only be the fruit of daily training regimens. Louis, however, didn’t seem like he had enough stamina to outrun an angry boulder.
Driven mad with worry, Mina slowed a little to look back at Louis. When she did, her right foot sunk into the ground with a click—she had stepped on another trap trigger.
…Uh? I just stepped on something, didn’t I? The blood draining from her face like the waves during low tide, Mina came to a complete stop. Leo immediately caught up to her and grabbed her by the shoulder.
“Mina! What’s wrong?! Don’t stop!” He impatiently snatched up her hand and tried to pull her with him.
“…I have to, Leo!”
“Why?!”
She clutched his hand in both of hers and tugged back against his pull. “I stepped on it…”
“Huh?”
“I just stepped on a bloody trap, tooooooo!” she cried out at the same time the stones beneath their feet pulled apart like someone had opened a double door.
A pitfall this time?!
Mina was left speechless by the sudden inky darkness swallowing her feet. Without ground to stand on, her feet treaded temporarily through thin air. Seconds after feeling like time had stopped, gravity pulled them upside down into a free fall.
“KYAAAAAH!”
“WAAAAAAH!”
We’re falling, falling, falling!
Three screams echoed in the dark as they rapidly plummeted. Pitch-black walls whisked past them at dizzying speeds. Thick darkness covered everything below, filling them with the bone-chilling fear of not knowing how long they were going to fall for.
Mina looked up in hopes of finding something to grab onto—only to witness the moment the boulder that had been hot on their tail drop into the pit and zoom past them. Luckily, the weightlessness of falling made it a cinch to dodge the boulder. Though they had literally fallen into a completely different pinch.
Blond tresses whipping behind him, Louis called out to Leo’s back below him, “We can make do if we use a float spell! Can you pull it off, Leo?”
“I’ll make it happen!” Leo held out his right hand and swiftly formed the magic circle, the fall doing nothing to disturb his neat lines.
A gust of wind shot up from below them in response, pillowing their descent and slowly floating them down.
A-Are we going to get out of this alive?!
As they descended like a baby being rocked in a cradle of clouds, the gutter walls on both sides came to an abrupt end and they were spit out of the narrow black hole into a wide clearing. A field of blue flowers spread out below their eyes.
Wow, what is this place?! Mina’s breath was taken away by the unexpectedly beautiful scenery. I can’t believe the bottom floor of the ruins is a flower garden… Though this looks more like a field of wildflowers than a manicured garden.
Mina glanced at Leo and Louis floating on either side of her: they were glaring warily at the flower field.
It’s pretty bizarre for flowers to bloom deep underground like this.
Leo and Louis were more sensitive to magic distortions, giving them a greater awareness of what was off about the uncanny field.
The gust of wind let them off on top of the blue flowers. Mina cupped her hand over her forehead and looked up at the dome ceiling where she saw the gutter exit they had fallen from several dozen floors above. They may have fallen to the deepest dungeon level.
Leo scratched the back of his head as he stared up at the ceiling with her. “Our misfortune may have been luck after all. Doesn’t this abnormal space scream we’re close to our goal?”
“Certainly feels that way. I thought I was finally going to meet the beautiful Creation Goddess when we fell into the trap pit while being chased by a boulder, but it appears lady luck hasn’t forsaken us.” Louis adjusted his clothes and continued with a shrug, “On that note, this is quite the uncanny garden. You would never know that a huge flower field existed underneath the ancient ruins…”
“Feels like we’ve hit the end of the Quest. Anyways, these blue flowers…” Leo bent over and picked a petal off one of the blue flowers at his feet, “…are being forced to bloom with magic. Flowers would never bloom under the ruins like this. Maybe this dungeon’s boss has a thing for ‘em?”
“Hard to say. The more poisonous the flower the more colorful and eye-catching it becomes. Personally, I think this boss has poor taste.”
“Oi, oi. Don’t taunt the dungeon’s boss,” Leo chuckled and scanned the area for life. “Doesn’t look like Elias and Aki are nearby.”
Mina didn’t sense anyone else in the flower field either. There was only the occasional breeze that sent ripples through the flowers.
Where is that breeze coming from? Trivial as that question may seem, it was just one of the many elements that added to the clearing’s creepiness.
Mina pulled the map from the pouch at her belt and tried to approximate their current location. “This is about the only place on the map that’s this spacious.”
Louis looked over at the map and trailed his finger from their location north. “If this is where we are at on the map, we should reach our final destination if we continue north.”
“Then why don’t we head north while looking for Elias and Aki? They probably stopped to smell the flowers along the way. What a pain,” Leo complained, but he was restlessly urging them ahead all the same.
He had mentioned not seeing Elias and Aki for a while; he was probably dying to see them soon. His thoughts had been preoccupied with worry for Aki from the start.
Leo flicked back his robe and marched off ahead of them. Louis fell in line behind him and Mina followed after them, squeezing her hands together in a bid to suppress her impatience.
Elias, Aki, please be safe. I’m coming for you with Leo and Louis!