8 Inside the Dungeon and then Outside

As David was waking up, he found he was still in the cave that he was in when he fell asleep. His head splitting and not even knowing how he got there. All he knows is that's somehow dark yet still bright.

He tries to get up, but can't. It's like he has no strength at the moment. "Iroh, are you there?" David asks, starting to freak out being alone. Panic and quickened breathing becoming apparent.

[Yes, I'm here. I don't know which world you took us too. I can't seem to pinpoint it. When you had left the last dimension, you started to corrupt it with your own mana, and I can tell you itts spreading, but what it's doing I can't tell. Enough of that though, I'm trying to figure out where we are, but something is interfering with me finding out where we are, or even where you are, and its taking a lot to even communicate with you at the moment] Iroh says.

David starts calming down, and looks around. He sees marks on the floor, but the curious thing is that they are all over where he is, but not coming close to him. Like they were avoiding him. "I don't know where I am, but it looks like I'm underground. God I can't think straight right now." He says as he's holding his head. Try as he may, it's not going away at the moment.

"Can you bring me back?" David asks. [No, something won't let me. I can talk to you but everything else...I'm not able to go through. And I'm fighting for the ability to talk. Someone is doing this. Another God]

"Is there anything that I can do? I don't want to be left alone rn." David says as he's trying his hardest to get up. Although slowly, he's getting his strength back, but not quick enough for him to be comfortable.

"It feels like the time when me and my sibling were playing on the haybales again and I fell off from laughing too hard and got the wind knocked out of me." He says as a joke to brighten the mood, smiling at the memory, though it caused him to wince in pain with trying to remember. Still, the smile on his face was helping him.

[Heh, sounds like you. Anyway, I've gotten an unstable connection rn, so if I don't respond I'm going to be using all that I can process to try and reconnect. I'm constantly fighting something and I can't tell what it is. But from what I can see from up here is a world based in older times. Though for some reason they can use magic. So be careful. And a tall structure coming out of the ground. I feel multiple divinities with a stronger one sitting in the building. There's also one below that but I don't know where, although for some reason it's helping me trying to connect to you]

David, with his head starting to stop hurting, hears that and goes, "Huh?" Completely confused as to what he just heard, asks Iroh again, "You mean someone knows of me and is actively trying to help us?"

[Yes]

'Huh, interesting. But if they can help us with a connection, then maybe they can help me get back to Iroh. But the problem is trying to find them.' And as David is finally able to stand, he starts to feel himself get stronger, although not enough to do magic, but enough to run away if he needs too. It won't be as fast he wants too, but he can still book it faster than the normal human eye can track at least.

"Alright, on the bright side, I'm alive, and on the downside, there's literally no bright side to this cavern I'm in. I'm getting a feeling to go this way, but I guess I can only follow it right?" And he starts off down the path. There's twists and turns going through the place, but he keeps following it, it's almost like he can see a string, a lit up path he knows he needs to take, and is just taking a leap of faith to follow it.

As he travels down the path for a little while, he talks with Iroh about small things trying to keep himself calm and won't freak out. Finally reaching some stairs, they go down. He's confused, but just feels like he needs to go down, and so he walks.

'Huh, I just realized that I'm in my half form. This is cool, I can hear much better to my fox ears being out, and my tails just make me feel free.' As he thinks this he smiles. 'I might not have the strength to do what I want right now since I overexerted myself with trying to get out of that last world, and a backlash of trying to use higher forms of magic when I'm barely able to handle it. I tried it while back in the Garden, but it just hurt and caused me to feel weak for a while. Guess that's why the seals are in place, to help me out.' As he starts to skip manly like forward with no one around to witness it (or he thinks so), and thinks to himself, 'I'm glad I at least have the infinite magic part. I can spam all those basic magic spells. OH, I feel like a seal has been undone, Iroh did say I was able to get out of that dimension, but I forced it. I didn't have to ability to before hand, since its like my magic has a faucet attached to it. I just turned it a little more and allowed more magic to be used.'

David smiles evilly, 'If I can use more magic in my spells now, lets start practicing. I've been meaning to try this, I didn't have enough before hand, but I wonder if I can do it now?'

And as he thinks this, he starts to float. "YEEEES!! IT WORKED HAHAHA!!!" Excited that he doesn't have to walk anymore, not that he was getting tired, but why walk when you can float. 'This allows me to practice two birds with one stone, maybe even three if I try to. Don't get too ahead of yourself David. Let's try doing two spells at once.' And as he thinks this, he starts practicing. Magic has always been a fantasy to him, and he always liked tinkering with things before he died, so messing with magic was like working with his hands. Very soothing. And he didn't realize it, but he started to have some tails.

"Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Says a petite lady with dark skin. "Kind of hard not too, since they're giving off some major magic waves." Says another lady with dark skin, though looking like a twin, was much more curvy than that of the one next to her.

"I can see that, but the question is why. I don't remember them anywhere, and I would've remembered someone like that roaming around." Says a short blonde, almost like a kid if it wasn't for the authority he held with his aura.

"..." Said another just staring, a blonde.

"Well, lets go find out. Ain't no point in staying here with them right in front of us. HEY..." as they were shouting had his mouth covered from one of the twins.

"Don't, lets just follow them and figure out who they are, or what they are. They feel like a God, but they are able to be here in the dungeon." Says a green haired elf nearby. A blonde elf just rapidly nodding their head to what the green one said.

David, having been reinforcing his body, had been practicing to float, reinforce his body, and other magics at the same time. Having hear the voices, turns quickly and sees the group. With wide eyes, realizes where he is. 'Oh my God, I'm in Danmachi, and that's the main Loki group.' As he sees them, they realize that he looking at them.

"Hello there Sir, can I ask you as to why you are here?" Says Finn, trying to be friendly. David, just staring at them, doesn't know what to say.

"HEY, HE ASKED YOU A QUESTION!" Shouts Bete. David, having his thoughts run all over the place, being caught like a deer in a headlight, falls onto the ground. With him remembering things from the past, the memories of the night of his death coming back to him when he hears the shouting. With tears coming out his golden eyes, starts to run away, no reinforcement or anything with his mind in jumbles, but his ears and tails still sticking out while he's pumping his legs and swinging his arms as if it'll make him faster.

"Stop him! He's going towards the Minotaur's and Ligerfang's area!" Yells Finn to the others, trying to stop David before he gets hurt and chases him. The others follow suit after they see their captain running after the mysterious boy. Try as they might, they can't catch up to him, and they would've lost him too if it wasn't for the occasional stumble from not being able to see properly and running on the uneven ground.

They finally all turn a corner and see a huge room with lots of Minotaur's and Ligerfang's, turning to the sound of the commotion. They see the adventurers following David, and get ready to fight. The adventurers stop, yelling at David to stop and come to them. He doesn't stop.

However, contrary to their expectations, the monsters don't attack David, and one of the Ligerfang's move in the way of David, with him not realizing it, crashes into the monster. They both fall, but instead of getting up and running away, David is just fazed, and feeling the soft fur below him from the ligerfang, starts to calm down. Mentally drained, starts to fall asleep on top of the Ligerfang that is getting up.

The adventurers, not believing what they are seeing, are seeing the monsters protecting that 9-tailed fox boy. "Everyone, we need to get that boy! I don't care how, but make sure he's intact and in our hands! Go!" And as Finn shouts that, all the adventurers starts running towards the boy, trying to get him away from the monsters. The monsters seeing this, starts charging at the adventurers, trying to stop them while the Ligerfang with David on its back starts to run deeper into the dungeon, trying to make a beeline to the Monster Rex spawn area.

Finn yelling to Ais, "Go, stop that monster and get the boy!" And as soon as he says that, she starts speeding past all the monsters since there are too many cut down and make herself a path. The monsters not able to respond to her movements, try and make a wall with their bodies. Ais just jumps over the monsters and makes a beeline for the boy.

The Ligerfang carrying David just tries to reach the room down the corridor as fast as it can, but doesn't make it as she catches up and grabs the boy from it's back. The Ligerfang feeling him leaving its back, calls out to the others with a roar.

All the monsters hear it, and even then they start calling others. The floor starts shaking, with all the monsters coming for them. The walls opening and spawning more of them. They start to realize that they might have to run without the boy if this starts to get any worse.

"Everyone, cut down the monsters and make a path back to the Expedition group, we are heading back up to the top! Move it people!" Finn shouts out to the others. With Ais still carrying the boy, she hears Riveria call out to her. "Give him to me, you need to fight and carrying the boy is stopping you, I can do that." And Ais hands David off to the green haired elf. And then goes on to slaughter all the monsters in their way. They make it back to the Expedition group that is also under siege. "Everyone, make a break for the outside, anyone that gets left is going to die, so move it people! Ditch everything but your weapons!" Finn shouts out.

Everyone hearing this ditches everything they got other than the weapons. They fight their way out, the monsters trying everything they can do to try and get David back. They start to lose members due to the sheer numbers of monsters, and even though they are low leveled for them, they can't fight a constant battle all the way up like they are. Finally, the main group makes it to the front, and they start cleaving a path through the monsters. They make headway to the top. They lose members at the edges of their group due to number of monsters trying to get back David, and from the rear too.

They start to make it up the floors, but the monsters from the lower floors are still following. Finn tells Bete, "Go and tell the people on the top that there is a monster break coming. Hurry!" And with that Bete uses all that he could to just hop from monster to monster to get through and rush to the top to warn everyone.

With the agonizing time of trying to push through the monsters, they see the people at the entrance to the dungeon holding off any monsters trying to get through. Many other familias also there to help, not wanting their city to be a dead zone.

The Expedition group makes it to the top, and Riveria still carrying David with the rest of the main group surrounding her, makes a break for the back of the group. Finally, the monsters are starting to thin out enough, and they are able to push them back. After the long hard fight of almost every fighting familia at the dungeon, they are wondering what just happened to cause this.

"So, what was that, why was there a huge monster tide trying to get out, and it didn't look like a normal one, they were more agressive than normal and there were monsters from the lower floors! What is going on?!" Says one of the people that participated.

"Riveria, take the boy home to the mansion. We need to ask him several things, but right now we cannot let anyone ask about the boy. Go." Finn says to Riveria. She just nods and starts to run away back to their mansion.

And as Finn is trying to explain and calm everyone down, Riveria made it back to the mansion. Loki being drunk as always while hanging around the place looks at Riveria, and says, "You have a knack for bringing kids back, don't you?" As she says with a smirk.

Riveria, unamused at the tease, just looks at here and starts to talk to her about what happened underneath in the dungeon. The longer that Loki listened to her, the more perplexed she became, and it clearly showed on her face.

"So your telling me that the dungeon wanted that boy, but didn't attack him at all, and in fact tried to keep him away from yall before causing a dungeon breach from all the monsters from the floor you found him on and all the way up?" Loki asks as a simple recap. Still not really believing what was just said.

"Yes, that is exactly what I said. For whatever reason, this boy was not harmed in the slightest, and instead taken care of by the monsters." Says Riveria, still holding the boy in her arms. They both just look at him, still asleep and dozing away without realizing what he just caused.