Love Makes you Dumb

(Noah's POV)

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Dimensional Storage Ring - Low-Grade Epic Artifact

Storage capacity - 13/25

You have to touch the object to store it in the ring.

Soul bound to the wearer.

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1 box contained high uncommon grade healing potions x75

1 box contained low epic-grade healing potions x8

1 box contained by teleportation/protection necklace. Left uses : 3

1 box contained Elixirs x 215

and lots of other things.

As you know, a single box can contain as many numbers of the same item as you want to.

Why had I taken this thing out?

Well, the answer to that is rather simple, remember it's only been 300 years since mana, energy, or whatever came into existence in the world outside of this hidden dungeon but for this world, it's been a very long time.

Now, what I am trying to say is, that these guys have more development with artifacts and stuff they make than our own.

...and I am robbing these places.

I mean, I just got 215 Elixirs, this one thing is worth a billion in the outside world!

I have got 215 billion on me!

Time to be a trillionaire!

What? What happened to Demon Lord?

Well, she is sleeping in her room.

Hey, I left my system to look after her! If something happens my system will instantly tell me about it and I can use my protection cum teleportation necklace to get to her.

"Why the hell are we robbing!?"

"...'cause I can't afford this shit?"

I mean, why else would you rob? If I had money to throw around I would have bought it (remove the sugarcoating, and what I mean is I would be flexing hard if I had the money) How dumb is she?

"Can't we just take it? Why hide and then steal?"

"...To not cause commotion? Also, that still would be robbing."

Oh lord, she is dumber than I had thought.

"Why am I stuck with you!"

"Demon Lord gave you the order to follow my demands, Liza you have become dumber. Ah, love makes people dumb, doesn't it."

Her head must be filled with teenage onee-san.

"Loves incredible, it's awesome, makes you feel fluffy, a warm feeling spreading through your entire bein-"

And Liza's rambling goes on and on.

Shaking my head, I thought about the things that I had chosen.

I need to be careful with it.

Going through the list in my head once again I gave myself a nod. All things are done.

"Hey, Liza let's have a vacation in the room"

I brought up the subject I have been meaning to.

Robbing was a side job, robbing during the times when everyone is busy with war is much easier anyway.

What I mainly need to do is deal with some not-so-appreciable problems.

For some reason, Liza gave me the dirtiest looks she could have had as she spoke "You want to die?"

Give me a break.

"Look, if there comes a day where everyone dies in this world and it's only me and you who are left in the world even then I wouldn't hook up with you"

"Where do you get that confidence from? You are the ugliest of the bunch, you know?"

Screw off!

I have a B+ charm!

But alas, the people surrounding me are too damn high standard.

The teenage onee-san has a charm of A! Liza has SS and Demon Lord, has SSS charm.

In that regard, I am the ugliest or the least attractive among them.

Not like I care about it.

I totally don't.

What matters is a person's hea- wait no, let's not go there.

After some more traveling, We arrived at our destination, in an abandoned castle surrounded by the forest.

The forest itself is filled with wild beasts that could be seen roaming around. None of them approached us, because, of course, Liza is strong, absurdly so. In this world, she is the 3rd strongest person.

Who is second? Well, it's someone named Rubina Darkling, as for the first, it's none other than the currently sleepy princess.

Anyways, the place we are at belongs to Demon Lord, though it is a kinda isolated, abandoned castle.

We entered one of the castle's rooms.

Liza followed me, completely unconcerned about everything. Well, she is on a call with her lover, so makes sense.

"What are we supposed to do here" Liza asked finally letting her curiosity out while still being on the call.

"You are supposed to remain inside one of the rooms and I will do the rest of the work. Also, I will be borrowing some of your tamed beasts like we talked about before."

"Sure." Liza begrudgingly accepted as she whistled and several ear-deafening roars surrounded the outside of the castle.

If not for the Demon lord's instruction to accommodate me, Liza would have refused me in all likelihood.

I left her alone in one of the castle's rooms, coming out of the castle, I was greeted by 20 different high-ranked wild beasts.

I gestured for them to follow me and they did, I pulled out my marine-colored necklace.

'Now then, here comes the long-awaited question, will I get the Exp if I kill people using traps?' I thought as I wore the necklace in case things went south.

Let's find out, after all, right now is the 'best time'.

"System-san, show me the whole structure of this place."

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(Third Person Pov)

The endless downpour of heavy raindrops drenched their clothes, making it harder for them to move. Thick white fog obstructed their vision. They were surrounded by nothing but the overgrown trees.

"Alright, be aware you wouldn't wanna fall in a pit and get swallowed whole" A man with red fiery eyes warned his comrades and they nodded in turn, his name Orson.

"Still, never thought we would get out of there, by the way, I think it would be better to find a place to rest, the environment isn't suitable to continue like this" A dwarf suggested, his name Edison.

"You are right, Ella, Elisa, and Oliver, will you?" Orson asked.

"Yes, boss!" Oliver replied.

"Leave it to us" Ella responded, an elf

"..."

"Alright, we will stay here," Orson said, thick, tightly wound branches and countless leaves dispersed the raindrops before reaching them under the tall tree.

Ella nodded and left along with Elisa and Oliver, both of whom were beastfolk. Elves and Beastfolk are both incredible at navigating through forests.

"It seems like Elisa dear is still reeling in the shock," A female vampire said with a smile tugged on her red glistening lips as she started playing around with the mist in their surrounding.

Her words made the other two male companions' faces scrunch up.

Yes, this group was none other than the leaders of the shelter Noah had first gone to. The very leaders who were until now confined for the crimes they committed, for extracting the affinity from countless individuals.

Though they lacked a member named Edward, he had died during the whole fiasco that had taken place.

And since then, Elisa had been in shock, unable to forget the sight of him drenched in blood, the sight of him dying in front of her, all the while she was simply being handcuffed and taken away.

Elisa had wanted to stay by his side but she wasn't allowed to, she was simply thrown into confinement while Edward was taken by the medics and after few hours she and all others heard the news of their dead comrade, they weren't even allowed to see his dead body, understandably so, no one has enough time to spend on them. They had to deal with the demon that was going to attack the shelter.

But logic doesn't help settle emotions.

All of them have been greatly affected by the events, the only one who managed to remain unaffected was the vampire rather she had enjoyed those unexpected events.

Regardless, they have to face forward, their job was not an easy one. Killing the Demon Lord.

Marcus has promised them that if they succeed then all their charges will be dropped but most of all they will be allowed to see their dead comrade's corpse.

"He is a shady man, that Marcus," The Female vampire said as she strolled through the area all the while controlling the mist surrounding her and making small beasts of different types around her.

"He sure is" Edison replied and Orson simply nodded.

There were so many things that simply didn't sit right about Marcus, their very quest was shady. If they were really going to subjugate Demon Lord then a group of 6 people was insufficient even if the person they were going to kill was sleeping.

After all, she is the Demon Lord, the protection she might be surrounded with can't be a laughing matter.

Marcus didn't even give them much information except that Demon Lord had gone to sleep without letting many know about it this time, thus Marcus has said while everyone is focused on the war, they can use that chance to kill the Demon Lord when she doesn't have much protection surrounding her in her vulnerable moments.

The question here is 'why?'. Why did Marcus choose them? But they didn't ask such questions, beggars can't be choosers, after all.

The sound of heavy downfall rang in their ears. No one spoke a single word. Orson and Edison just sat down on the grass while the vampire kept playing around.

"Hey, Orson what do you think? Can we eat them?" Asked Edison looking at the blue colored fruit hanging on the tree.

"I don't know, we should just wait for their return, don't you think?" Orson replied.

"Is there something wrong with your eyes? How can you not see this beautiful lady in front of you? I have lived for a long time, it wouldn't hurt to ask someone experienced, would it?" the vampire lady questioned.

Orson simply ignored her, he knew it but he still didn't like how unaffected she was. He knows vampire needs to be like that, for if they became attached to others similar to other species it would make their existence miserable, or ...maybe their existence was miserable to begin with and they have simply turned into a bunch of crazies.

Regardless, Orson didn't want to talk with her as much as possible, understanding Orson's inner thoughts without him expressing them, the female vampire simply gave out a sad smile only for a moment and began to speak.

"Those are safe to eat, they help replenish mana as well as exhaustion." Saying so, she continued dancing in the rain with the small beasts made of mist hovering around her.

Edison trusting in her words, picked those fruits and started eating them, he offered some to Orson but he refused.

And so they continued to wait.

Until they heard an ear-splitting roar.

And then the smartwatches they were using to have contact with each other suddenly stopped working.

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There are beasts and then there are wild beasts.

The difference between them was simple, the wild beasts are simply unsavory and quite gutsy. Even if they face someone clearly stronger than them they would still hold their ground and put up a fight and wild beasts have quite a good battle iq, unless the other party seemed overwhelmingly strong they wouldn't back down.

All in all, wild beasts are more dangerous. Going near their vicinity is the same as asking for a fight.

And currently, Oliver, Elisa, and Ella found themselves facing such a wild beast.

"Of all things, why did it have to be a quetzalcoatlus?" Oliver voiced his question.

If a meteor strike could cause the life form to go extinct then an event that changed the whole atmosphere of the world, changed the size of the earth, and changed the number of suns and moons could definitely result in giving birth to once extinct life form.

...with some added features.

"I don't wanna be swallowed by him of all things" Ella complained.

Elisa didn't say anything but simply willed aura into her legs.

"Alright, guys, disperse it's coming!" Oliver shouted as all three of them jumped away.

The wild beast flapped his wings after willing it with mana, resulting in a massive wave of air, overgrown trees, and branches, a few beasts flew away while some were instantly crushed by the force of the attack.

Apparently, before the quetzalcoatlus showed up their group of three were stuck fighting a bunch of other beasts, and now those beasts are all dead.

"I still would fight those beasts any day than this quetzal, more so in a weather like this" Oliver complained while jumping from one tree to another as carefully as possible to make sure he didn't slip up.

Ella and Elisa were the same.

Ella jumped down the tree and started running towards the wild beast, she willed the mana into her legs and kicked off the ground with enough force to leave a crater behind her, her actions flashy enough for the wild beast to focus his attention towards her. Ella pushing her right hand towards the bird beast, launched several water spikes that came out of the palm of her hand, a high-grade spell.

The wild bird beast stomped on the ground on his right leg and roared, the loud and terrible noise sounded like a zipper being ripped off its track. The noise was loud enough to shake anyone near its vicinity.

The ground beneath which the beast had stomped turned into a large crater, the resulting shockwaves and flying debris pushing the water spikes as well as anyone trying to get close to him.

Despite that some of the water spikes still managed to pass through it all and hit the bird beast, colliding with its hard scale on his body, some water spikes dispersed and some managed to pierce its body eliciting the bird beast to scream as it violently thrashed around.

"Tch" Clicking her tongue, Ella instantly jumped backward but because of the rain, and the muddy ground that had become slippery, she skidded far more than she had initially wanted to, barely able to control herself from falling on the ground all because of a certain pebble that she stepped on mistakenly causing her to feel a tingling sensation, as if something cut through her skin, barely.

'...I was sure I had my body covered with mana' thinking to herself, she shook her head, it wasn't time to be worried about a small injury!

Closing in on the creature from high above, Oliver prepared to rip the beast into two with his halberd ready covered in a thick aura. The wild beast's eyes quickly focused on him and its long-shaped beak jerked viciously sending Oliver flying.

Oliver caught the attack with his right arm before him, he had willed them with aura so he didn't suffer injuries, as he tried to regain his footing once again the bird beast flew into the sky high above and flapped its wings, trying to capture Oliver in the wind vortex that was shot straight towards him.

"You aren't the only one who can do this shit!" Saying so Oliver concentrated a huge amount of aura towards his fist and punched straight toward the coming wind vortex.

The two attacks collided with each other, sending waves enough to uproot the trees, nullifying each other in the process.

"Die"

The sound came from behind the wild beast, flying in the air but before it could react, a punch landed on its head, causing it to go blank, and then his head popped off, spraying blood everywhere, its body in free fall state.

Using his body as a cushion, Elisa landed back on the ground along with the dead beast's body.

In a single punch, she had killed him, leaving both Ella and Oliver shell-shocked. They both came running towards her.

"H-hey, it was really cool how you killed him in just a single punch! B-but, don't you think you willed a bit too much aura into your attack?" Oliver asked hesitantly.

It wasn't like Oliver or Ella couldn't have killed the beast in a single attack but they were trying to preserve their mana and aura reserves. Of course, strengthing your body from the inside doesn't cost any mana or aura to exhaust but there was a downside to it.

Depending on the amount of mana and aura one uses to strengthen their body, the body reaches the state of fatigue and hunger that fast.

That was one of the reasons why during the very first hidden dungeon that Noah challenged he packed enough food with him, he was in one word, starving and since he was new to this world, he was no expert in the matters of controlling the mana in any precise manner.

"It's fine," Elisa said.

"It might be fine for you but it would certainly turn into a problem for us, please refrain from acting recklessly, this place is filled with wild beasts like this one in dozens, we need to be careful, we don't need baggage" Ella sternly told Elisa.

Ella was right, Elisa had unnecessarily willed far more aura than she should have had to finish off the wild beast, even before that Elisa had been fighting recklessly, if this keeps going on, she will exhaust herself way faster and she certainly will become a baggage.

"I just said I will be fine on my o-" Just before Elisa could finish her words off, an ear-splitting roar which seemed to have come from above the heavens reached them.

They all looked towards the sky and what greeted their sight was a swarm of different wild beasts fighting each other.

One of the beasts fell down towards them.

In an instant, they all understood what was happening.

"An infighting? We need to get out of here" Oliver said, the urgency in his voice, proof of the dire situation.

When wild beasts fight one another, they of course fight wildly, without any ounce of regard towards their surroundings, being around them wasn't advisable, moreso, if those beasts have the ability to fly, you never know when their attacks would come hurling towards you.

It wasn't that they couldn't deal with them but involving themselves in unnecessary fights was just plain stupid.

Their job was to find some food and a suitable place to where they could stay.

Just as Oliver and Ella prepared to leave, Elisa jumped off the ground, using the overgrown trees as her stepping stone, as she approached the swarm of the wild flying beasts all the while muttering "One annoying thing after another"

Saying so, she jumped on one of the flying beasts and she set him ablaze, then using him she jumped off into the air, high above all the beasts in the rainy sky. Her fiery red eyes gleamed as she looked down on the wild beasts, prepared to free fall towards them.

Just then, another roar, came out of nowhere, Elisa's eyes opened wide as she looked towards the source of the voice, a creature coming towards her with speed-defying logic.

Unable to do much in the mid-air, Elisa covered her entire body with aura, the wild beast captured her with its beak as he took her along with him.

It all happened so fast, everyone who witnessed the scene simply stood like statues.

"...What the fuck!!!" Oliver shouted at the top of his lungs breaking out of his stupor as he started chasing the big flying wildly beast.

"That dumb girl, just when I told her to not be reckless!" Saying so, Ella also chased after the wild beast heading toward the east.

Alas, they didn't notice their smartwatch had stopped functioning.