Episode 6: Duo Dungeon (6)

Within the empty streets of a quiet neighbourhood, a young black-haired man could be seen tiredly making his way back home. There, as he entered his house, the young man immediately flopped down to his couch.

"Hah... Finally back..." As the rays of the evening light illuminated Jace's face, the young man lazily rummaged through his pockets, soon taking out his phone from it. "Man, what a tiring day..."

From the crack of dawn until now, Jace had been out the entire day, spending most of his time in dungeons. It was only now did he finally had the time to relax.

"Honestly, why does it feel like this is the most tiring I've felt recently?" Perhaps it had to do with the fact that he was in a two-man party or that he still wasn't used to his current state, but compared to his past dungeon experiences, he hadn't felt this exhausted in a while. "...well, it's whatever. I'll get used to it eventually."

Despite his circumstances, the situation could not be helped. With a sigh, Jace's eyes lazily turned towards his status window, where his attention was fixed on the bond: [ Soul Linkage: Landon Von Davies ].

[ Soul Linkage: Landon Von Davies ] [ Bond ]

Bond Name: Whiff & Indolence.

Rank: 2

Basic Info:

-The Whiff and the Indolence. When either you or Landon are near each other, the damage dealt from bullets shot out by either one of you will increase by 10%. When [Soul Channeler] is activated on Landon, the damage is further increased to 14%.

-When the skill [Soul Seer's Eyes] is activated on Landon, additionally allows the ability to view the contents of the target's title and their title progression.

-[ More benefits will be gained as you rank this link up. ]

-Next Rank Up Conditions: Spend more time with Landon and have your bond grow deeper.

...

Almost right after defeating the Spider Queen, Jace received a sudden notification regarding the link with Landon. It was none other than a rank-up notification, which surprised him.

"To think that I'd rank up so soon..." Jace muttered, reading through the updated contents of the bond. "It hasn't even been that long since I established the link."

The increase in rank was an unexpected thing for Jace. After all, it had only been a little over a day since Jace first linked with Landon. As such, it never occurred to him that he would rank up in such a short amount of time.

"Is it because the condition was lenient?" The previous rank-up condition for the bond was just 'spend more time with Landon'. There was never any specified amount of time. "Hmm... Well, seeing as how the second rank for this link isn't that big, I guess the leniency makes sense?"

The second rank of the bond allowed Jace to view the contents of Landon's title as well as his title progression. It was essentially more information for Jace on top of viewing the basic stats and skill names.

"Overall, I'd say it's a minor upgrade." Thinking to himself, Jace swiped away the status window in the next second. "Though, given that this is the second rank's upgrade... I wonder what the third one would give? The rank-up condition looks to be just about the same..."

Compared to the previous condition, the new one was nearly identical. The only difference was that 'have your bond grow deeper' was added, which, in its essence, meant the same thing as spending more time with Landon.

"Hmm... I guess I'll just have to see later on," he yawned. "In any case, I would've expected Landon to have felt something when the bond reached rank two... But, from his reaction earlier, it looks like he didn't feel anything?"

Much to his surprise, when he first received the rank-up notification, Landon's only reaction was confusion as to why Jace had stopped randomly in his place. There was nothing that showed that Landon knew of the rank-up. He remained completely unaware of it.

"If he doesn't know about it... I should probably tell him the next time I see him," he shrugged. "Though, the reveal that I can now see his title progression would be..." As Jace fell deep into thought, the phone in his hand suddenly lit up. "...?"

At that moment, his eyes were greeted by a WhatsUP message notification sent by Landon.

[ @Landon: REPLY WHEN YOU SEE THIS!! (+3) ]

"...huh?" At the sight of the message before him, Jace raised his brow in confusion. "What is it now?" Curious, the young man casually tapped on the notification, sending him to the chat of Landon.

-Landon- Online.

[Landon]: HEY, LAZY EYES! ARE YA BACK YET???

[Landon]: I GOT SOMETHING TO TELL YOU!!!

[Landon]: REPLY WHEN YOU SEE THIS!!

Glancing at the messages, Jace sighed, soon replying to it.

[Jace]: ...what is it?

[Landon]: Oh great! You replied! I've got something to tell you!

[Jace]: Get to the point...

[Landon]: OKAY SO... I didn't get a confirmation from you. But are we still going out to dungeon tomorrow??? If not, what about the day after?

[Jace]: Hah... Seriously a dungeon addict.

[Landon]: Hey! We gotta grind a lot to get stronger you know?? So you in or what??? Yay? Nay?

"..." Jace stared at his phone for a few seconds, hovering over the keyboard, thinking of what to reply.

[Landon]: Lazyyy Eyes??

[Jace]: ...sigh. Fine. I'll see you tomorrow then.

[Landon]: YEAHHH!!! LET'S GO!

[Landon]: THEN I'LL SEE YOU TOMORROW MORNING!

-Landon shared a location with you.

[Landon]: SEE YOU AT 6!!

-Landon is now offline.

"...hah." As the chat came to an end, Jace scratched his head helplessly as he placed his phone down on the coffee table. "I guess there's that. Looks like I'll be having another tiring day tomorrow as well..."

...

And so, the evening went by just like that. Before Jace knew it, it was already the next day. Before even the morning sun had risen, Jace had to drag himself out of his house in order to meet up with Landon.

"Ugh..." Still seemingly drowsy, the young man was making his way through the streets as he reached a barricaded area, where a gate had appeared in the middle of the road. "Why does it have to be so early in the morning..."

"Lazy Eyes!" Rubbing his eyes in order to get rid of his drowsiness, Jace's ears perked up, noticing that Landon had called out to him. "Over here!!"

"...hmm?" As he turned his head over towards the direction of the voice, he noted that a brown-haired man was standing right next to Landon. "...oh? We're going in as a proper party this time?"

"Yep!" Landon enthusiastically nodded his head. "Derek and Penelope are gonna join us! Our dungeon clear time is gonna be even faster than before! But it's sad that Toriq can't join us..."

"Oh! I didn't know Jace was joining us as well!" At the sight of the black-haired man, Derek's eyes opened wide in shock. "You're pretty early this time around!"

"...right," Jace yawned. "I wished I could just sleep in..."

"Haha, too bad!" Landon laughed. "Now that you're here, all we need to do is wait for Penelope and..." As the blonde-haired man was about to continue his sentence, he was abruptly interrupted by a sudden shout from behind Jace.

"HUH?! This guy's here too?!" As Jace turned around, he saw that Penelope had arrived. Though, her expression was none too pleased to see him.