150 Spelunking With A Princess [1]
After running for almost ten minutes, Arvell's eyes flickered as he turned to Lillianna.
"Wait, Lillianna."
Pulling himself to a stop, Arvell gestured for her to do the same.
"Is there something wrong?" Lillianna asked with a curious look.
Unsheathing his sword, Arvell narrowed his eyes as he eyed the path before them.
Sensing his intentions, August jumped off his shoulder and put some distance between himself and Arvell.
"Somethings coming."
Lillianna's eyes widened, but she nodded in understanding.
Pulling out her sword, she assumed her fighting stance.
(WOOSH)
Using his night vision, Arvell could see countless sharp objects flying in his direction faster than the untrained eye could see.
Arvell's exhaled slightly as he lifted his sword.
(DING DING DING DING)
With one fluid movement, Arvell cut down all of the projectiles.
Lillianna, whose reaction speed was slightly slower, achieved a similar feat.
While her eyes could not see them correctly due to the dim lighting provided almost entirely by the luminescent crystals embedded in the cave walls, her reflexes were lightning-fast.
(DING DING DING DING)
"Be careful. It's not done," Arvell warned as he eyed the darkness before them, tracking the beast with his eyes.
Lillianna nodded in understanding.
"SQEEEEE!"
Letting out a roar, the beast began barreling its way over to the three of them, eventually getting close enough for Lillianna to finally see it.
Arvell's eyes flickered.
[Status]
[Status Information]
Species: Quillian Hedgehog
Beast Rank: Late First Rank
[A beast with removable regenerating spines that can shoot at its prey at high velocities.]
'For a first-rank beast to survive here, it must have been quite lucky. Too bad it's luck finally ran out.'
Given that most of the beasts in this area were stronger than the Rasian Python at the academy's entrance examination, it must have been nothing short of a miracle for a first rank to survive.
Arvell and Lillianna exchanged glances before they jumped at the beast.
Lillianna opened her mouth slowly and began chanting.
"Let the current course through my veins and give me the might of thunder… Lightning Boost!
Meanwhile, Arvell manipulated the nearby Aether while faking some mouth motions.
[Temporal Manipulation]
Sensing a severe threat from the two humans before it, the hedgehog let loose another volley of quills, which the pair almost effortlessly deflected once more.
"SQEEEEE!"
The beast cried out once more before swinging its paws at them.
The two swung their swords out and sliced at the beast's paws, cutting cleanly through its claws.
Without giving the beast another second to react, they rotated their swords and swiftly beheaded the beast with perfect coordination.
(FWOOSHH)
Both jumped back to avoid the spray of blood from the hedgehog's headless neck.
Lillianna turned to Arvell with a smile.
"We make a good team."
Arvell's lips curved up into a small smile.
"Yeah, I guess we do."
Arvell turned around behind them and eyed the countless winding pathways.
"We should have put enough distance by now."
"I agree. I feel like we ran enough, too. No way it can track us through all those tunnels, right?"
"We can't know for sure, but at least the tracking pendant is gone."
"Yeah…"
Lillianna's eyes glossed over slightly.
"Since we should be good about now, let's look for a way out of here."
While Arvell still remembered the location of the gaping hole through which they initially came, there should be an easier way to get out.
"Well, the mana concentration gets stronger the deeper you go in a dungeon, so I assume we should just go in the direction with the least concentration of mana, right?" Lillianna proposed.
Arvell nodded his head.
"Exactly, but while my other senses are quite sharp, my sense for mana is a little lacking compared to most people. Would you mind guiding us?"
Despite trying to pull the wool over her eyes, Arvell still acted utterly normal, trying his best to play off his complete lack of mana.
"Hmm… Okay."
While initially confused by his words, Lillianna eventually nodded her head.
While the two of them had significantly decreased their speed in lieu of conserving their energy, they were still by no means slow.
"Arvell, I feel like that tunnel has a lower mana concentration. Let's go there."
Nodding his head, Arvell followed her through a network of tunnels.
Luckily, the duo avoided confrontations with other beasts, so their journey was smooth sailing.
However, as they neared their next tunnel, Arvell felt a disturbance in the Aether concentrations in the air.
'What is this? I feel… A strong surge of Aether comes from that tunnel. I've never felt anything like this before.'
His eyes widened with shock, and he stopped momentarily.
Sensing him stop, Lillianna slowed down as well.
"Is there something wrong, Arvell?" She asked with a serious tone, "Is it a beast?"
Arvell shook his head but began to walk toward the tunnel.
"Sorry, I need to check something out real quick."
Lillianna nodded and followed Arvell.
Despite the mana concentration being relatively high in the direction where Arvell was going, she didn't object to his decision.
In the worst-case scenario, they could just turn around and come back from the direction they came.
August, perched on Arvell's shoulder, looked at him with confusion.
'Is everything alright, Arvell?'
'I don't know…'
Just in case, Arvell unsheathed his sword, prompting Lillianna to do the same.
Entering the tunnel, Arvell was met with a small cave with glowing crystals embedded in the walls.
The crystals outside the cave would generally be enough to light up the surrounding vicinity to an extent, but the crystals in this cave were far brighter than their counterparts.
This was all because of one reason.
These crystals were none other than mana crystals!
However, while the sight of mana crystals would make a mage salivate in the mere presence of one, Arvell was utterly uninterested in those.
Instead, his eyes were glued to a tiny purple pebble the same colour as Arvell's irises.
The rock looked completely lacklustre compared to the beautiful mana crystals, but Arvell could tell…
Its value was far, far greater.
Hello, this is Sleepy_Slime here!
Sorry for the complete and utter lack of presence for so long...
However, I promise I'll try to be more accountable and update more frequently from now on.
If I don't, feel free to come onto my discord and yell at me...
(Sigh... I'm going to regret saying this...)
Sleepy_Slime
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