Chapter 143 The Dungeon’s Depths [1]
'Shit!'
Arvell inwardly cursed as he, August, and Lillianna plummeted into the darkness below.
Since even with his superior vision, he couldn't see Julius nor Marisa, it was evident that those two didn't fall in as well.
Feeling the familiar rush of wind blowing against his face, Arvell almost instinctively unfurled the wings he usually kept tightly bound behind his back.
Still, the sudden realization that he wasn't alone made him stop.
'If I'm going to pull them out, I should make sure Lily's knocked out first. I don't want her to find out about them. She shouldn't mind too much since it'll save her from dying.'
Arvell could tell that there was still quite a distance from the ground, so he decided that the best move would be to knock Lily out, so she didn't catch a glimpse of his two mismatched wings.
Turning his head to face Lily, Arvell was prepared to give her a quick chop behind her neck, but he paused before he continued.
'She's already out cold….'
Arvell was momentarily stunned by the actions of his former fiance, but a stream of forgotten memories passed through his mind, giving him a realization of the current scenario.
'Ah, right, she always feared heights and falling.'
When the two used to play as kids, Arvell tried to take Lily to the top of one of the castle towers to show her the view of the capital, but Lily passed out on the spot.
Arvell, at the time, had panicked and called for a maid, who quickly carried Lily to a bed to rest.
It was only later he found out that she had a bad experience while attempting to climb a tree and got stuck a few months prior.
Sick of all the etiquette classes that her family made her take, Lily had used the excuse of needing to use the restroom to slip out of her tutoring session to go explore the courtyard instead.
She found a cat stuck in one of the trees and thought she'd try to help it.
But instead of helping the cat, she ended up getting stuck herself.
Since she'd snuck into the courtyard on her own, no one knew she was there, so she was stuck up in that tree for almost half an hour.
Lily didn't exactly want to call for help since she was scared she'd get in trouble, but after she didn't return back to her lecture, her tutor began looking for her, alerting some of the nearby guards to help out as well.
While she got scolded for trying to play hookey, the fear of falling from that tree was an even greater scar for the young girl.
'I didn't think she'd still be afraid of something that happened almost a decade ago,' Arvell thought with a small smile.
It seemed that the traces of the girl he knew were still in there.
'This makes everything easier.'
Arvell grabbed Lillianna and August (who were tightly clinging to his shirt) and unfurled the wings he had kept hidden for almost 2 months.
He didn't even bother to take off his shirt and let the two wings puncture two gaping holes in the back of his shirt.
Spreading them out, Arvell was able to stop their rapid plummeting and made it into a more of a slow descent.
He was finally airborne for the first time in ages, and Arvell relished that feeling.
Being deprived of flying had begun to take a toll on Arvell, so he wanted to make the best out of his current situation.
After all, who knows when he could get another chance like this?
lightsnοvεl.cοm But…
Arvell knew this was neither the time nor place to be enjoying himself.
He needed to find a way to get the three of them to safety.
'I can't go back the way we came, or that would raise too many eyebrows. So it's best to land on the ground before we plot our next move.'
Considering Lillianna's more fragile body, Arvell descended slower than usual.
While she was by no means weak, Lillianna needed to use magic to reinforce and strengthen her body.
Something which she couldn't really do while knocked out cold.
Even at their current speed, it wasn't long before Arvell could see the ground.
'We must be on a lower floor of the dungeon, Aug. Keep an eye out for anything coming our way.'
It was generally expected for the lower levels of the dungeon to be infested with higher-level beasts since the lower levels would typically have a higher mana density than the upper layers.
As Arvell was about to reach the ground, he saw something jump towards him from the corner of his eye.
'Shit!'
Before he could reach the ground, Arvell flapped his wings and took off back into the air while a giant light blue blob jumped onto the spot where he was going to land.
'What is that? It's way too big to be a slime, but its characteristics look almost identical!'
Arvell was puzzled for a moment before he decided to check what it was using status.
[Status]
[Status Information]
Species: Mother Slime
Beast Rank: Late Second Rank
Status: Tamed Beast
[A Slime which is often considered the 'mother' of ordinary slimes. By detaching portions of its body over long periods, it can create countless smaller slimes, serving it as its mother and queen. Due to its innate physiology, its vitality would rival a late 3rd-grade beast.]
'Just great, out of the frying pan and into the fire.' Arvell lamented inwardly.
After trying to flee from an army of slimes, they ran straight into their boss.
If ordinary slimes had the vitality of a late second rank beast, this mother slime obviously would have a vitality of a late third-grade beast.
This was something that made even Arvell feel nervous.
'It seems I'll need to pull out all the stops to beat this. But, frankly, it's best to just try to leave.'
Just as Arvell thought that something caught his eye, it was something he'd never seen on a status page and frankly threw him for a loop once he noticed it.
'Wait… this thing is tamed?'
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