Chapter 105: What lurks within the depths of the underground
"Hurry! On your left!"
Shouting the warning, Penne dashed towards his girlfriend. As little as it could do, he brought the modified pistol up the axis of his eyes before sending a cloud of pellets towards the monster. As little as it could do, it bought a few precious seconds for his comadre to regain her foothold and turn around on the monster. Two hits delivered squarely to its core, and the fight was finally over.
"Gosh, that was hard!"
Falling down on her soft bottom, Keria whined. Yet, even this natural mean of loosening up didn"t seem to do much against the exhaustion that her entire body showcased. Unable or unwilling to hold her short sword any longer, Penne"s girlfriend curled up and hid her face in her knees.
"We all knew what we were signing for. And this is not the time to complain. Those Boruta b.a.s.t.a.r.ds should be right behind us."
Looking back as if expecting to see that unwelcomed party stepping out of the nearest corner of the labyrinth, Penne only sighed with relief when no human silhouette entered his vision.
"Still, you did a great job. It"s insane what a fifth stage cultivator is capable of… Kudos for your hard work."
Finally returning from his recon mission, Dister looked at the pitiful state of the two members of his party. While most of their friends preferred to just cultivate in peace, the three of them decided to take the risk and enter the dungeon that recently appeared in the vincity of their hometown.
"It"s nothing. You should see what Natasha or Zigfrid can do. I"m not quite sure, but I think Nat already reached the sixth stage while Zig rushed all the way to the seventh. But still, I don"t think this kind of wealth-fueled growth will lead to some good results down the line."
Finally waking up from her momentary daze, Keira summed up the situation before raising her hand towards her eyes.
"Still, it"s insane how much energy does those monsters release once they die. Penne, this time it"s your turn to guard us."
Quickly changing the topic as if wanting to push it through before anyone could even think about her words, Keria sat crosslegged directly on the stone floor of the labyrinth.
"Wait a second!"
Just as the girl was about to close her eyes and start absorbing the rich energy permeating the air, Distra raised his hand in protest.
"Penne won"t say a word against you, so I feel responsible to do it for him. Keria, don"t try to cheat. We all know it"s your turn now."
Watching as the initial disagreement between two of his closest friends developed to a small, bickering duel, Penne only shook his head before sitting on the floor and resting his back against the wall. Being the only one left on the fourth stage of the basic cultivation in the team, every second of cultivating within the labyrinth should be precious to him…
Yet, he just could say no to this girl. Be it his average face, average character or average achievements, there was nothing for Keira to be with someone like him. Even when compared to the more robust Distra, he would come at the losing end of the scale. In the end, despite his talent which was the only thing that set him apart from the rest of the average people like him, he still lagged behind the two of his teammates.
"Distra… You know that if he won"t learn how to take care of his own interests, then he will become a failure of an adult? We are no longer teenagers. He needs to grow up a bit!"
As the argument between two of his friends become more and more heated, Penne silenced all of this noise, focusing on circulating his energy through the paths he formed before. Following the universal guide to the cultivation, he would only advance to the next stage once the pathways of his magic would widen up to a point where they would become a basic reserve for magic energy for him to use at any point he would want.
In the time that Keira argued with Distra about the worth of his continued efforts at becoming stronger, Penne actually continued to push himself further and further beyond his current situation. Bit by bit, the rich, wild energy of the monsters of the labyrinth moved from the air to Penne"s bloodstream, infusing his basic bodily liquid with tons of energy.
"Wait, stop speaking for a moment…"
Suddenly raising his hand, Distra managed to make the girl instantly shut herself up. Following the direction that the young man"s eyes moved towards, the girl could quickly learn what made Distra so worried in the first place.
"So they caught up to us… I guess it"s only to be expected for it to happen so soon."
Instead of some dangerous monsters, it was actually the team of Boruta believers from the nearby city that made Distra so vary. Even though they seemed to be cultivators just like them, both in terms of what they were attempting to achieve in the labyrinth and in terms of how strong they were, they were already far beyond anything that Penne"s team ever could manage to achieve in a relatively reasonable amount of time.
"Oh, so this spot was already taken!"
Hearing the genuine surprise in the voice of the newcomers, Penne tensed all over. While he was pretty exhausted after all the fighting they have done so far, he could tell that both his girlfriend and his cherished friend were in far worse shape than he was.
But instead of launching themselves at them in order to steal the spot with all the energy still almost tangible in the air… The young man that heralded the team competing with them smiled towards him, before actually walking forward!
"Wait, what?"
At first, Penne could only watch in shock as the group of four humans simply pa.s.sed by them, without interrupting his cultivation. But in just a few more seconds, the situation changed entirely. Feeling a strange force gathering within his guts, Penne tensed all over. His head fell down, hiding on top of his chest as that strange force continued to build up within his guts.
"Wait, is he…"
Right before the leader of the intruding party could finish his sentence, the force that continued to build up within Penne"s bloodline, reached its breaking point.
Crack.
As if his entire inner self suddenly shattered, putting a great scar on his spiritual self, Penne"s all senses lit up in pain. In less than a second, the peaceful moment of cultivation turned to a h.e.l.lish experience of having every cell of his body torn apart, only to have it nourished with energy and reborn anew.
"PENNE!"
Noticing the distraught of her boyfriend, Keira ignored the potential threat posed by the other group, rushing towards the shaking body of Penne. But even before she could reach him, a blue shine flashed in the corridor of the labyrinth, before the magic around the young adventurer suddenly calmed down.
"Stay away from him! You will only make it harder for him to stabilize!"
Something was not right. Instead of using the opportunity to curb their opposition, the party of those despicable heretics actually formed a defensive line around the young man, while a strange, blue stone continued to float right in front of his chest. But as if the entire situation wasn"t tense enough, a low-pitched growl suddenly came from the depths of the labyrinth.
And it could mean only one thing.
"Boss of the floor? So quickly?!"
Not paying any attention to the moves of Penne"s group, their compet.i.tors didn"t run. They didn"t leave the other group as the bait aimed at slowing the attack of the monster hiding in the shadows of the labyrinth. Rather than that, two of them grasped the arms of Penne"s two teammates, before forcing them to fall in the line of their own, defensive formation.
"What the h.e.l.l are you doing?"
With Penne unable to react to anything that was going on with the powerful currents of magical energy still purifying every cell of his body, it was actually the other group that brought order back to the messy situation. With two more blue, shiny stones suddenly appearing in front of the two front-located members of that heretic party, it seemed that they were now all ready and prepared for the incoming onslaught.
"Just stay in the back and guard your friend. If you too small to realise that there is no place for our small compet.i.tion, then feel free to step forward and face that beast on your own."
Just from the single sentence filled with the tone of annoyance, Penne realised how wrong they were about the intentions of the other group. Instead of leaving them alone to their fates, they were actually willing to remain and defend him as he would finish his process of reaching the fifth stage of the first realm of basic cultivation?
"Here it comes!"
Cutting all the unnecessary attention that he sacrificed on listening to Keira"s whining, the leader of the other group focused himself on the ma.s.s of energy that slowly continued to creep towards them from the depths of the dim tunnel.
And then it finally appeared in their field of vision.
Compared to the monsters they were fighting before… The boss of the floor didn"t seem to be all that different. Shaped just like a wild wolf, with two horns decorating its skull, the only thing that set it apart from the local inhabitants of this strange place was how thick the magic energy around it was. When compared to the normal monsters from before…
No…
Shaking his head at the idiotic idea he was just about to utter within his own mind, Penne lowered his sight.
With how sickeningly thick the energy around the boss was, there was no point in comparing it. That was the level of the monster that this heretic party didn"t show any hesitation when arming against.
"Jerry, I think now it"s a good time to use it."
Instead of panicking, they stood strong. Rather than rushing forward in order to overwhelm the powerful enemy with numbers, they just calmly waited for it to come to them. And from what one of the members of the other party suggested to their leader, it seemed they didn"t come here without a proper plan to fight the boss!
"Right, I almost forgot about it. Those artefacts… They are just too d.a.m.n convenient…"
There could be only one explanation for the gentle smile that appeared on the lips of the leader of the other group. He clearly had to be mad to smile in the situation they were in. But instead of letting a crazed laugh escape his mouth, the young man just pulled a fancy-looking stone from the pocket on his chest, before looking towards the monsters with strange lights of curiosity flaring up in his eyes.
"All this time… I couldn"t help but wonder what this thing is capable of. Everyone, close your eyes and shield your ears! Fireball, here I go!"