After killing both enemies Joshua stepped around their disappearing corpses to head over and inspect the treasure chest at the end of the pathway. He first used an up close aura pulse to check for any sort of problem with the chest. If there was a trap then he could usually tell from that alone and luckily there wasn"t any problem this time around. With a smile he bent down and opened the chest to see what was inside. Lilly had also walked over to get a closer look and Joshua"s eyes brightened up at the raw materials inside. It would be a dream treasure chest for someone like Naomi since most of the stuff inside were things that she needed when forging equipment. tThere were all sorts of materials from metals that were more flexible to ones that were staunch and unbendable. There were also some bottles filled with some sort of liquid, but Joshua knew right away it wasn"t a potion for them to drink by its weird color. Most healing potions were either a bright red color or green color if they were used to heal specific effect on the body such as poison. The liquid inside the bottle was a golden color and when he observed it Joshua found out that it was an enhancement potion that could be used when making equipment. When added during the heating process the liquid would make the formed weapon more durable at the end. Of course it would become more effective when used on materials that were already good on their own. Using it on basic iron would be a complete waste in the end.
tAfter getting everything out of the chest Joshua realized just about all of it would be a great gift for Naomi since they were all used for her profession. He made sure to put it all in his inventory and give it to her later, keeping their blacksmith happy would go a long way for their equipment in the future. After checking to see if there was anything hidden along the walls at the dead end with a quick aura pulse Joshua and Lilly headed back the way they had come. When they got back to the split they decided to take the right path this time and avoid the trap from the path down the middle all together. Although these creatures gave experience, Joshua knew the place would be grading them on how well they did in the dungeon before giving them a reward. Getting caught in traps purposely wouldn"t really be a good mark for them unless the trap was protecting a treasure of some kind like a monster room or something.
tSoon they found themselves making their way down the right path and it was once again another long hall way that lead on far further than his aura pulse could travel. Along the way Joshua took notice of shadows moving along the wall weirdly and feigned ignorance as they approached. Since he was out front the creatures would go for him first so he just waited for the moment where it came out in the open. At that instant he blocked one of the creature"s attacks and countered, knocking it back into two more of them that were taken off guard. Of course the rest of his group didn"t just stand there and do nothing. The moment that the creatures were knocked away Cinder bombarded them with flames while Lilly empowered her attack burning the creatures completely to ash.
t"It seems that as long as we get these things out of their shadow like state they"re fairly easy to kill." Lilly said with a smile as she petted Cinder as if to tell her she did a good job.
t"As long as they come in small groups like this it"s all well in good, but the moment we run into a larger group things will become more troublesome for us." Joshua said with a frown as he started moving forward once again.
t"What do you mean?"
t"Well right now all it takes to take out a small group is for me to block off their initial attacks and get them out of hiding while you and Cinder finish them quickly. The problem with large groups is the fact that I can"t block off all of their attacks at the same time. Plus this place barely gives me any room to use my scale blade well so trying to block them all off with a short sword is a bit of a challenge." Joshua explained.
t"He is right, but in that situation I"ll be the one to take the front line. Since these creatures attack the first thing they see then I"ll stay out front against big groups." Tank said getting a questioning look from Lilly in return. "I can block off all of their attacks with my sh.e.l.l from all directions, then you guys can take them out while they are out of their shadow form attacking me. That"s the best strategy I can think of for these things."
t"Sounds good to me, I doubt we"ll run into any large group"s at least until we come across a bigger room. So during the hallways I"ll keep taking the lead but whenever we come across a big open area you go in first." Joshua said getting a nod from the large turtle and a smile from Lilly.
tAfter that little conversation they kept making their way down the hallway and Joshua continued his previous strategy whenever they came across shadows he would prepare to counter their first surprise attack while Lilly and Cinder quickly burnt them to ash after he had knocked them back. For the most part Tank just followed along until something more dangerous happened. Eventually they came up to another split that once again broke down into three different hallways, but this time around when Joshua used his aura pulse to check ahead and see what was down each path he figured out that all of them were useful.
The correct path to proceed this time was right down the middle as it went on the furthest without any traps getting in their way. The right path lead to a simple treasure chest that was guarded by three of the odd creatures like the last time he had went down a split path. The path that was actually surprising this time around was the left most path. It lead to a trap, but this time it was a trap that Joshua definitely planned on jumping face first into. This path lead to a monster room which would undoubtedly have several of those annoying creatures waiting for them to try to tear them apart the moment they stepped inside, but it would also most likely have an extremely valuable treasure for them to get. So this time around Joshua decided they should go down each path to get all the loot and experience.
They went down the right path first and ran into the group of three shadow figures guarding the treasure chest just like Joshua was expecting. They all immediately rushed into the walls and floor the moment Joshua got close enough to agro them and they all charged over swiftly. This time they"d be attacking Joshua from three different angles at the same time. He knew he couldn"t block them all, but he didn"t have to. Instead he evaded the first two that aimed for his lower body and then twisted so that he could parry the last one and swiftly move out of the way of Cinder"s large stream of flame that engulfed the three poor creatures. They wailed for a moment, but before they could try to sink back into the walls their bodies broke down and Joshua could feel another surge of experience fill him.
He walked over and checked the chest for any traps and when he found a simple poison gas trap he used an aura blast to break the top off and knock the trap away with the lid. It didn"t even get the chance to start as the top of the chest raddled on the floor nearby. The contents on the inside were more materials and some more of that potion for black smiting. They didn"t mind so much since they knew most of the gear they currently had would be good for them well past level fifty. After collecting the stuff they made their way back to the split point and went down the left most path this time around.
This path wasn"t nearly as long as the other two and lead to a decent sized door at the end of it. Joshua could already sense the trap on the other side of the door with his aura pulse, but he could also sense the large amount of monsters on the other side of the door as well. It was going to be a lot of experience so he simply smiled as he pushed the door open. This time around he didn"t step inside first but let Tank take the lead. The moment they had all entered the room more than a dozen of the shadowy clawed figures made their way out from inside the large wall at the back of the room. They were starting to make their way towards Tank, but that wasn"t what Joshua had his eyes on. In the center of the room he could see a treasure chest on a pedestal and he knew at that moment that he had made the right choice.
Before he got to side tracked he turned his attention back to Tank and waited for the right time to help out. He noticed that the instant the figures got close, Tank immediately withdrew into his sh.e.l.l and all of their clawed attacks just glanced off of it. Sadly the creatures weren"t on the bright side and were basically designed to either go after the first person they saw or the person that had been doing the most damage. At this point no one had attacked them so all of the creatures were aiming at the big giant sh.e.l.l that they had seen first.
The next moment Lilly and Cinder both started shooting flames toward the mob of shadow creatures and they were instantly caught on fire. Since there were so many of them the flames were spread out and didn"t immediately kill them all. Joshua made sure to help finish them off before they could try to go hide back into the ground or walls. He charged a large energy slash that cut through half of the burning creatures then followed that up with aura blast to kill the rest. After all the creatures had died Tank came out of his sh.e.l.l and stretched a bit like nothing had happened while Joshua and Lilly headed over to the treasure chest to check and see what exactly was inside of it.
Joshua made sure to check the chest for traps before opening it, but this time he didn"t find any. It wasn"t to surprising since the entire room was basically a trap. When he opened the chest he found a splendid looking spear that seemed fairly good to him. It was at least a weapon that could last up to level sixty and probably a little longer even after that. He decided to put it aside and give it to Allen later. He noticed the spear that the elf wannabe was using at the moment wasn"t very good at this point. It might have been able to last up to level forty, but at the moment Allen had to use his aura clad ability on his spear if he wanted to do any real damage to an enemy. Luckily the material this spear was made out of was more flexible and could flow better with aura.
The rest of the items in the chest were simply more materials and potions, but in the end it was worth the detour if he could improve the capabilities of one of his future guild members. After leaving the area they went down the correct path and had to fight more creatures from time to time. The dungeon took on a pattern of splitting and leading to different areas with only one path moving forward correctly. Joshua made sure to get any treasure he could sense with his aura pulse, but avoided any straight up dead ends or traps that didn"t have any treasure worth the effort. After a while he could sense with his aura pulse that they were coming up on the end of the first floor and he smiled wondering what guardian would be blocking their way to the next floor.