Chapter 142 Dungeon Expedition [5]
"We've got more company up ahead."
After hearing being stopped by Arvell and hearing the words that left his mouth, his companions threw him momentarily confused gazes.
lightsΝοvel.cοm However, using the momentary silence, they realized they could hear a cacophony of faint noises coming from up ahead.
(Squelch)
(Squelch)
(Squelch)
It sounded like something squishy was hidden behind the darkness up ahead, coming closer by the second.
Furthermore, it wasn't just one, but multiple.
It was to the point where they could overwhelm their group of four with sheer numbers.
Knowing that it was only moments before the beasts would make contact with their group, the rest of his team assumed their battle positions.
While Lillianna and Arvell pulled out their swords which they kept sheathed by their sides, Marisa pulled out a small wand from her pocket, and Julius simply raised the book in his hand.
"Arvell and I will be the vanguards. You two assist from behind."
Due to the direness of the situation, Lillianna didn't have the time to ask nicely but instead assumed her regal, commanding voice.
Only some people in their group found it particularly strange.
Arvell and the other two nodded at her suggestion, given that it was the most viable of their options.
While the others in his group were nervously glaring at the darkness before them, anticipating the enemies before them, Arvell, with his night vision, could see them as clear as day.
'Slimes, and not just a few.'
There appeared to be a small army of blob-like creatures with varying colours rapidly hopping their way over here.
'These things are a pain to kill unless you can extract or destroy their beast core.'
Slimes were generally categorized as late-first-rank beasts. However, their vitality was often judged almost a full rank higher.
This was primarily due to their nature of being able to regenerate endlessly as long as their beast cores weren't damaged or removed from their jell-like bodies.
Their bodies were completely opaque, so it wasn't easy to tell exactly where their beast cores were.
Furthermore, due to a slime's inherent nature to change its body's shape and structure at will, it could even rapidly change the location of the beast cores in its body.
Fighting a slime would be an uphill battle unless someone could vaporize them in a single hit or remove/destroy their cores in one hit.
Fighting that many slimes with just a group of four?
There were far easier ways to commit suicide.
Arvell frowned at the odds and turned to his group.
"They're slimes, and from what I can tell, there are at least 30."
The group's eyes went wide as they turned to Arvell with a shocked look.
Marisa's face went as pale as a ghost, while even the ordinarily aloof Julius had an unusually serious look in his eyes.
"Are you sure? This dungeon is the jurisdiction of the academy. Surely they would make sure that there wasn't anything that could kill the students here, right?" Marisa asked in a shaky voice as if trying to deny reality itself.
After all, even she could hear the slimes coming closer by the second, which was more than enough proof to validate Arvell's words.
At her words, Arvell just smiled wryly.
"You did hear about the new-student examinations, right? There was a rank 2 beast there that single-handedly killed off a significant amount of applicants. Even so, that's beside the point right now. All that matters is that these things are getting closer with every passing moment, even as we speak. That's why, Instead of wasting time talking, we should start running."
Lillianna and Julius nodded at Arvell's words while Marisa began to shiver in fear at Arvell's words.
Her eyes were glazed over as she began muttering to herself, a stark contrast to her usually jovial disposition.
"We're going to die… They're going to kill us all… I'm going to get killed in a dark cave in a dungeon…."
Arvell inwardly clicked his tongue at her actions.
'Great, now it looks like I'll need to run while carrying her.'
Fortunately, Lillianna stepped up to the girl and put her hand on her shoulder.
"Marisa, we need to get going."
Marisa's body shook at Lillianna's touch, but it seemed that was exactly what it took to wake her up from her daze.
"Y-yeah… Let's go."
She slapped her cheeks hard to wake herself up before throwing Lillianna an appreciative look.
"Thank you."
Lillianna smiled lightly in response.
"You're welcome."
Before seeing the army of slimes emerge from the darkness, the group turned around and began frantically sprinting back the way they came.
Arvell and Lillianna ran in front, and the other two ran closely behind.
This was due to the natural physical difference between Arcane Mages and Arcane Warriors since the latter usually had much more physically fit bodies.
While running, Arvell paid avid attention to his surroundings looking for the source of killing intent he had felt earlier, but he strangely couldn't handle it anymore.
While he didn't get complacent, he believed it was safe to assume that whatever it was wouldn't attack them.
After running at full speed, a distance of 5 meters had formed between Arvell and Lillianna and the other two behind them due to the natural speed difference.
As they continued to run back down the path they had walked earlier, Arvell felt the floor he was standing on grown weak, as if the ground supporting it had suddenly vanished.
This was something that he had not noticed the first time they came through this path, which struck him as odd.
Since Lillianna was too panicked to pay attention to the unexpected softness of the ground below them, the only one who managed to notice that something was off was Arvell.
"Wait, something's wro-"
He frantically turned to warn Lillianna, who was running next to him, but the area underneath his feet collapsed before he could finish his sentence.
Before he knew it, the two were free-falling into a seemingly never-ending abyss.
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