"Weird... it's awfully quiet for a fourth floor"
We were all on our positions, advancing slowly.
"Maybe it's one of those dungeons that only have a boss on the last floor" Vi added, trying to sound confident.
"That's only a case with a mid to high level dungeon" Agatha said as she scanned the empty room.
"Guys... you know how you can kinda figure out a boss by the hints the dungeon gives you?" Enrick asked as he broke formation, leaving to inspect a wooden table with various papers on it.
"Like how you know that a goblin rider will be a boss if you have to fight both goblins and wolves?" Eusta asked as we all gathered next to that wooden table.
"Exactly..."
Enrick picked up some papers.
"We've explored a lot of undead dungeons before, but none of them had things like this"
Vi added as she looked around, trying to find a hint on what was happening.
"This... it's so advanced... a tier five dark spell" Agatha claimed, skimming through the notes and papers.
"Tier five! That's two tiers more than you, Agatha. " Vi sounded worried, sweat becoming visible on her face.
!!!
"I hear something!" I tapped Enrick's shoulder and turned around.
"Guys, get ready!" The red-haired leader ordered us.
We followed through with the order, both guys on the front, the two mages on the back, and I'm in the middle.
We all gripped our weapons with strength.
Enrick held his shield and sword high, Eusta began chanting the rocky shield spell. Both girls got ready to chant their own spells, and I got both my daggers ready.
"Alen, get behind Agatha and Vi!"
Enrick yelled at me as we all felt the sounds of numerous steps come from a path.
I quickly understood his worries, I'm not as powerful as them, so I better go on the back line as he told me.
_____________
All of the party members stood there, frozen in place, as they waited for the enemy to make the first move.
The clanking caused by Enrick's armor as he started shaking in expectation, all their breaths could be heard.
*Thud*
At that loud sound, all the students tensed up.
*Bam*
A crushing sound followed.
*Plaf*
And a sound as if something fell followed, letting them wonder what those sounds were thanks to the deafening silence that followed.
"It seems that I got the weakest one"
A chilly and deep voice made all their bones shake, the voice definitely sounded artificial, with an echo after every word, no human would sound like that.
"Get ready, guys!" Enrick ordered his team, looking back at the ones on the back.
But what Enrick saw when he turned his head was different than what he expected.
He expected to see the two girls and Alen behind them.
But he could only see the two girls.
"Wh-where's Alen!?"
Both girls looked behind them and saw the first year on the ground, bleeding and clearly unconscious.
"A-alen!"
The sounds they heard were of the new, temporary member of their group being hit by a quick spell and fly against the wall.
"So this is te little group that's been having fun on the upper floors"
The voice finally revealed itself, a skeleton with glowing green eyes. The skeleton was dressed with a furry black coat, and he carried a slim staff that was bigger than his body.
His army of skeletons and zombies followed behind him, too many monsters for this group to handle.
"A-a lich..." Enrick's shaking became more noticeable as he took steps back. He could feel his cold sweat flowing through his face.
"Wh-what is that thing doing here?" Even the big and muscular Eusta felt like a small puppy in the presence of this monster.
"A-alen!" Vi was crouching next to the bleeding boy, her eyes full of tears that were just beginning to flow down.
Agatha couldn't even form a sentence. She could feel the immense mana emanating from that monster, how his ribcage glowed with an equal green as his eyes.
"None of you seem like a good soldier, but I guess it's better than nothing" he rubbed his skeletal chin with his boney fingers.
Although his voice sounded cocky, as if these kids were nothing more than dust to him, his expression never changed a bit.
"I'll test you all to see how far I should experiment with you, so who wants to be the first one to die?"
One of his undead followers walked to the front, stopping at the midway point between the monster and the human group.
"You'll each fight one on one until you die, either from exhaustion or get killed by one of my monsters... although the most likely outcome will be the later"
__________
Kaida: Is this the place?
A pixel art render of the main character of [Dragon's Roar] appeared on the left side of the screen.
Yani: Definetely, director Goldenlaw gave us the exact place where that dungeon is.
A pixel art rendition of the tan girl appeared on the right side of the screen.
Kaida: It's going to break out soon, right Yani?
Yani: That's what Goldenlaw said. And that's why we're here. She said that whoever can clear the dungeon before it breaks out'll be rewarded with tons of points.
Kaida: Isn't it a bit too much from us... amethyst gates are high-level dungeons, and we're on the first year... on class D... we ca-.
Yani: That's why this dungeon can only be attempted in groups of ten or more!
Kaida: And that's why I had to gather a group of fifteen people... you could've helped me.
Yani: I did all the equipment buying. Besides, we need to attempt this dungeon before someone else attempts it... like that bitch Von Themys.
Kaida: Y-Yani...
With that, the pre-planning conversation ended and the screen transitioned into a menu to organize the team and your resources.
"What can I do with this event..."
A shadowed figure sat in front of the computer, analyzing what he could do.
"Liana, and Tirino died early because of dumb mistakes..."
He remembered how those two died on this playthrough thanks to unlucky crits.
"I've gotta make sure I blow up that room on floor one and get that item"
"Kaida is really interesting... while she's a strong unit and using her is recommended, mostly because she's a unit that's always requiered to be played, you can simply not train her"
On this specific playthrough, he kept Kaida level low as it has an interaction with a character.
"Her unique advanced class gives her amazing stats even if you keep her at level one, so she'll end up being strong no matter what"
"This dungeon is ass though. No treasures, no chests, only a tedious fight against a lich. The only reason you do this dungeon is because it gives Kaida enough points to jump from class D rank twenty, to class C rank twenty in one go"
________
Another dream about my past life...
I slowly opened my eyes and saw that monster, a lich that hid his boney body behind that black coat.
"Alen!" Vi, who had tears on her eyes, looked completely frightened.
I saw Enrick fighting a big zombie on his own while everyone else watched.
I coughed up blood and attempted to stand up, but Vi tried to stop me.
"D-don't stand up Alen! You're too injured"
I could feel the trembling on her voice.
"I-I can stand up Vi, there are bigger problems than my health right now"
I stood up and gripped my daggers with strength.
"Oh... I didn't expect him to regain consciousness so quick" the lich let out a loud chuckle.
"You can be the next one if you want"
I walked to where Eusta stood. I could feel his embarrassment in the way he looked at the ground and gripped his axes with strength, he wanted to help his friend but was too scared to actually do something.
"Haaa!"
Our red-haired leader managed to decapitate a zombie.
But none of us cheered his victory, we knew what was gonna happen.
A new zombie entered the fight, not giving our leader time to rest.
"That's the fifteenth one. I've gotta say that you impressed me" the lich slowly clapped, sarcasm filling his entire sentence.
"Enrick..." Agatha breathed out as she held her book close to her chest.
So this is the incident that caused her to lose her memory.
The trauma of losing her friends one by one in this cruel way.
There has to be something I can do...
...
There's nothing I can do... I'm still way too weak for this monster, even his weakest attack caused me to lose consciousness for a moment.
I can't do anything... but the people around me can!
"Eusta, Vi" I said in a low tone, making sure that boss doesn't hear us.
"Can you cast stone wall and light wall?"
They both nodded their head.
"When I cast sandstorm, start casting it"
They looked at me with a confused expression, but seeing how I was the only one with a plan, they accepted.
As for me, while doing incantationless casting is useful in most situations, this isn't one of them.
"Winds from the scorching desert, create a storm that blinds my enemies"
"[Sandstorm]"
While I had a strong sandstorm reserved, a neutral form is best suited for this plan.
A cloud of sand formed next to us, probably hiding us from that lich.
And at that moment, I leapt forward and sliced the zombie Enrick was currently fighting.
"I don't know what you want to do kid, but it's all futile" while his skull couldn't form an expression, he clearly sounded like he could be smiling from ear to ear.
"[Wind Scythe]"
A quick and sharp wind came out of my hand and sliced the arm of a zombie that was approaching us.
"Wha- how did you?" This time, the boss' tone sounded genuinely surprised.
"Now!" I yelled at Enrick and started running away.
While he clearly didn't fully understand me, he did get what I wanted him to do.
"[Rock Wall]"
"[Light Wall]"
Two different kinds of walls formed behind Enrick and me as we got close to our teammates.
"Carry them if you need, but keep running!"
They did exactly what I said and carried the girls of the team.
"Interesting play kid, you're getting more interesting by the second"
We exited the fourth floor.
Eusta carried Vi and Enrick carried Agatha.
We exited the third floor.
We didn't care about anything else, we knew that monster could break the walls easily, but we took advantage of his overconfidence.
We exited the second floor.
We saw the entrance right there, protected by the divine room and occult room spell.
I tackled it with my shoulder to force it open and escape, but the door didn't even move a single inch.
As if I had tackled a fortified iron wall.
Eusta and Enrick gently dropped the girls and tried to open the door, but their attempts were as useful as mine.
"Why isn't this thing opening!"
"Fuck!"
The two boys could only yell as they tried using brute force, trying to open it carefully with their shaky hands, and try to break the door open with kicks and their weapons.
"Guys they're getting close!"
"We fucking know!"
I looked behind us, they were clearly taking their time.
There had to be a way out.
A way out...
"Recall stones!"
They all looked at me.
"Here"
With trembling hands, I gave them a recalling stone.
"Embue it with your mana and we should leave the dungeon"
"Oh thank God Alen" Vi said as she grabbed the recall stone with ragged breath and teary eyes.
We all started to pour our mana into the stones, and they began to shine.
The process of recalling only lasted five seconds, but right now five seconds seemed like an eternity.
Five seconds
We were all pouring more mana than necessary to make the recall faster, even if the amount poured into the stone didn't change the time it took, our nervousness didn't allow us to think straight.
Four seconds.
We looked at eachother and saw the despair om our faces.
Three seconds.
The sounds of that monster and it's followers approaching.
Two seconds.
"Alen!" Enrick yelled.
I looked behind me and saw a big skeleton dressed in a black, worn out clock.
I stepped back as I saw that skeleton swinging his big scythe at me.
One second.
But in that moment, in the last second, I let go of my recall stone.
Zero seconds.
The last thing I saw from my party members was them stretching their hands to me as they began to glow with a blue light.
Enrick, our leader, the guy that warmed up to me.
Eusta, the muscle of the group, the big guy that was always friendly with me.
Vi, the demi-human fox, the eccentric sister that always took my side.
Agatha, the one that shared the worst title with me, the girl I couldn't spend more time with.
Despite only meeting hours ago, they all stretched their hands at me before disappearing, they all tried to save me on the last moment.
_____________