Goodbye, Daily Life. Hello, Death Flags!

For the past few days, Alexis has been attending lessons like a good student, surviving his hard training with Mavis during the evenings and training the ferret overnight. Honestly, his heart was begging to enjoy this quiet peace. Somewhere at the back of his mind was telling him to focus and prepare, but with the lack of events so far, some of the desperation he initially felt was slowly fading.

What impressed Alexis most was how far he'd come with Mavis and her training. After nearly a week, he could sense her sound and see her the moment before impact. It may not sound like much, but this made fighting with other classmates boringly slow. He could easily see through their attacks, making dodging and countering a piece of cake.

Currently, Alexis was visiting the adventurers guild, it was the weekend, and he had a day off from training and class. Today it seemed like Claire was working, walking up to her desk with a confident step, greeted by her brilliant smile.

"Why hello there, Prince Alexis! How may I help you today?"

Alexis gave her body a quick look of admiration before returning to her eyes, giving her a devilish grin.

"I'll be going to the dungeon and came to see your face first. Haha"

Used to this kind of flattery, she just nodded, smiling. "Well, you've seen me. Make sure not to get hurt, and don't forget you owe me a meal!"

Alexis had gotten what he wanted, giving her a wink before heading towards the warping monument. "Ah, I'll take you out tonight. Make sure you're ready for me."

--

Alexis quickened his footsteps and chose to enter directly onto the second floor. During the past few days, although they hadn't gone all the way, he'd let Imra drink his fluids several times, so she was no longer angry with Fran, sometimes giving him tips to seduce her further.

He summoned Imra. Now that he was confident fighting, Alexis felt they needed to work on fighting together. In her usual seductive bikini plate armour, Imra was prancing around her sense were ridiculous able to sense hostile units over a kilometre away.

"Hey, Asmo. Why haven't you called the next summon yet?"

The pair were walking along a dirt path on the dungeon's second floor; honestly, he'd wanted to summon it on the first night. However, something within his body made him believe it wasn't the right time. That feeling had been slowly fading the further he got inside this dungeon, making him feel there was something here that would help the ritual.

"There's something here. I need to summon the best creature possible."

Imra placed her arms behind her head, facing away from Alexis, "Che, I know it's going to be that gigantic breasts, cow. There's no need to be so mysterious!"

If anyone else saw this, they would think the pair were on a simple picnic. The monsters in small groups were easily killed with a single abyss fire, followed by Imra smashing the remaining goblins into blood mist.

What the pair were searching for was likely something challenging. Sometimes a rare boss would spawn on a dungeon floor that was several floors higher in difficulty and could drop rare items or reagents.

Another issue was that since reaching level 5, the monsters here were now giving a single point of experience, which meant the need to kill nearly a thousand to level up again. So rather than focusing on levelling up, training and improving coordination seemed far more vital for Alexis.

"Hmmm, something feels strange", Imra said.

Alexis stopped, wondering what her words meant. 'Had she sensed a strong monster? What could be strange on the second floor of a beginner dungeon?'

"What's the matter, Imra?"

Imra stopped her light skipping, turning towards Alexis, the plate bikini jiggling with her breasts.

"For some reason, all the monsters on this floor are missing from the central area. The outer layers are fine, but everything else is gone. Except for one strong feeling monster in the centre."

Alexis placed a hand to his chin, thinking. "Maybe this monster caused the other monsters to migrate? Maybe even killing them off. I've never heard monsters killing each other in a dungeon, though. Let's check the situation out!"

"Un!"

The two changed directions from the north, heading towards the north-west towards the strange creature. Both filled with a deep focus, not wishing to get caught off guard in an ambush. Stronger monsters had slightly more intelligence than lower-class monsters, after all.

"Hold up, there it is! Woah, it's just like her but ugly and twisted. Talk about disgusting."

"Ah, it's something horrifying to look at."

After nearly an hour of travelling, the two were now within viewing distance of the creature. It was a minotaur, at least that's why it could have been, now filled with large chunks of rotten flesh and black growths emitting a disgusting yellow puss and pure white glazed eyes filled with zero intelligence.

"Well, it looks like we're going to need several baths later," Alexis said.

"..."

Imra gave him a slightly disgusted look, hoping he'd allow her to tag out of this fight.

Alexis moved to within 30 metres of the monster. Luckily it seemed bound to the dungeon's game-like rules despite this being the real world. Or maybe it was just blind.

"Imra, I'm going to open with Abyss Fire. After that, I hope you can keep it aggro. Otherwise, it'll slap me to death, haha!"

"Hmmm," Imra pondered for a moment before a strike of genius passed her mind. "Two loads, and I will!"

Alexis almost fumbled his cast because of her dirty request, non the less giving a slight nod as he spent the five seconds casting his spell. Simultaneously his abyssal Mantle deployed in the form of three blades guarding his flank and rear, thankfully only costing mana when used to attack; otherwise, they'd be useless in prolonged battles.

"Imra, I'm going! Domine inferni, ego praecipio tibi ut dones mihi flammam tuam! [Abyss Fire] "

The massive ball of black fire catapulted into the zombie minotaur with a large crash, causing the monster to fall as the fire continued to burn its flesh. A disgusting smell assaulted both Imra and Alexis's noses. Imra ignored the scent as much as possible, blinking towards the monster with an intense speed, leaving behind an afterimage as her fists pummeled the minotaur's face twice with a jab and uppercut once again, knocking it down after barely rising.

The black patches spat arrows of puss towards Imra. She dodged with a hair's breadth as it eroded the rocks it fell on in the distance. Imra took a slight distance. Her body glowed red after casing a taunting spell of the seduction type, a unique spell of her succubus class.

"Muaaaaaoooo"

Suddenly rushing to its feet like bewitched, the minotaur zombie started dashing towards Imra, only for it to become entangled in fiery black chains. Alexis sneaked to within 5 metres during its rage chasing towards Imra, following up with three slashes upon the minotaurs flank, causing three gaping wounds as the excess flames burned away the puss and minotaurs regenerative ability.

WOOSH!

The minotaur swung its arm, smashing Alexis, barely able to block the blow with two tendrils, causing them to shatter as his HP plummeted.

His body flew several metres away, crashing into a rock and smashing it in half, causing debris to fly everywhere.

Imra wasn't like those emotional girls. She knew he was fine and instantly rushed up to the minotaur's rear, a dark pink flaming mana coating her fists, chanting her skill before unleashing a flurry of strikes, all targeting the same spot, the minotaur's spine.

"Imple pugnos meos in ardere ira furoris [Fury Strikes]"

THUD!

More than twenty strikes impacted the minotaur's spine, causing severe damage. Its bones were more robust than most low-class metals after evolving. Still, her rain of blows managed to cause significant damage, now filled with several hairline cracks.

Over in the pile of dust, Alexis rose to his feet as he again began casting Abyss Fire this time, the minotaur wasn't going to let him cast it for free, charging towards him. Imra tried to seduce the target again but failed, chasing behind it at full speed to catch up and block Alexis.

'Imra, look out!'

A moment too late, Alexis's transmission came through after seeing a glint of intelligence within the monster's eyes.

The minotaur pivoted with incredible speed, its thick muscular arm closelining Imra. Her body wrapped around its arm before the impact sent her spinning with several backflips at an extreme speed into the ground. She slammed the back of her head into the floor, causing gigantic cracks for several metres and a deep crater as blood began to pool below her now twitching body.

"Shit!"

Alexis finished the spell. He felt something was wrong. He saw the minotaur begin to collapse, despite the eerie smile and glint in its eye. As the enormous black fireball smashed into the grinning minotaur's body, causing most of its flesh to disintegrate.

Alexis ran forward as quickly as possible, using his Mantle rods to boost his speed and distance like a pole vault. He could see the monster preparing one final salvo, its several black balls seeming to want to cover Imra in the corrosive fluids as they fired, almost covering the sky. She was now unconscious. Even her eyes were white.

Although Alexis knew she could recover and that even if she died after 24 hours, she'd return, it was the symbolic meaning he had promised once he restored his memory, not to let his loved ones die within his view once again. He'd once died pathetically, only for her to be eroded by holy light. Alexis felt this was a repeat of the past. There was no other choice but to protect his woman.

"It'll be all right! Imra, I'm here."

Alexis covered her body, deploying his Mantle only towards his back. Three thick black shields made from his tendrils tried to prevent the corrosive puss from doing damage. However, there were over one hundred shots as the tendrils sizzled and eroded away emptying his mana.

Finally, several dozen shots hit Alexis directly on his back, causing unbearable burning pain as the skin and flesh began to erode and fall from his back, revealing his spine as blood like a waterfall began to pour from his wounds.

"It's good. I did it! Finally! I could protect somebody I loved. Haha"

[Defeated Zombie Minotaur (Controlled)]

[Gained EXP]

[Level UP!]

[Now Level 6]

______

_________

[Alexis Van Garland]

[Summoner (Apprentice)]

[Level: 6]

[Summons: Imra]

[HP: 11/11]

[MP: 22/22]

[Strength: 3]

[Agility: 3]

[Stamina: 6]

[Wisdom: 11]

[Intellect: 11]

___

Thankfully, the level up healed his wounds partially. Before Alexis could celebrate and awaken Imra, his bracelet rang with an emergency message from the guild and the headmistress.

"WARNING! A dungeon wave has occurred!"

"WARNING! A dungeon wave has occurred!"

"Please seek safety at the nearest academy bunker. This is not a drill!"

Alexis's hand trembled before falling powerlessly to the side.

"My first death flag is about to arrive, and Imra is out of action!?"

He turned his head towards where the minotaur's corpse should have been, only to find a shining silver horn. He felt the same item was calling him earlier in the day. Alexis walked over and picked up the item.

But with what happened, all he could think of was. "This is far too coincidental! Is there some higher being controlling my every move and thought?"