46 Dungeon Boss’ Maze

After Arthur, Jasmine and the other 2 Mahpur brothers finished resting it was time to keep going. Everyone was but wary of traps now, but they moved with trust in our combine abilities. While they had been resting, the Mahpur brothers had traded stories about how Jasmine and Arthur kept Ben and Len safe; and how I kept Ken safe against the various traps and mana beasts.

The little nightmare fox stayed curled up inside my hood, so that it stayed out of my way. I should probably give it a name, but I'm not planning on keeping the creature so there's not much point. I found myself absentmindedly stroking its fur as we walked as we had been walking for almost an hour now.

"What's that?" I heard Arthur whisper so I enhanced my eyes with mana to see what he saw and chuckled lightly. It was a maze, at least I had to assume so since I wasn't looking at it from above, but with the multiple pathways and winding corridors what else could it be?

"I believe that is a maze, try not to get us too lost." As I said that, teasing our fearless leader, I began running mana strings around everyone and then sending them down the various passages of the maze. Jasmine was the only one that noticed the string as Arthur was still only an orange core mage whole Jasmine was approaching solid yellow.

"I know what a maze is, Rez. I just didn't want to have to deal with one, especially here." Arthur grumbles mostly to himself but loud enough for me to hear. I walk up and clap him on the shoulder mockingly, almost slapping rather than clapping.

"Don't fret young adventurer, your seniors are here to bail you out if you get lost." I could see his eyes narrow into a glare through the slits of his mask and I just raised my hands in defense.

"Quit teasing Note, Rez. Lead us forward Note, you've gotten us this far." Jasmine came forward with her usual stoic face and I just chuckled slightly. Arthur though, nodded and began the trek through the maze and took a right instead of a left.

"Right is the right path, but sometimes left is the only choice that remains." I say cryptically and get ignored by everyone so I just shrug it off.

(Get it? Because it's all that's left?)

A couple hours have passed with us traveling this maze, and I can feel the annoyance radiating off Arthur.

"Ahhhh. Well at least the next people that come through will have the maze completely mapped out for them, huh Note?" I said while stretching and I could feel his annoyance increasing with every word.

"You know~ you could ask for help from your master~." I continue to tease and I can see a faint smile off Jasmine's face at the interaction. Arthur turns around and faces, and his eyes could probably kill some people with that ferociousness behind them.

"If you know how to get out of here then be my guest." He said as he waved a hand in front of him, and I just shook my head.

"Don't worry young student, I'll give you a helping hand this time. Besides you were going the completely wrong way. Don't you know the correct path is: left, left, right, left, right, right, then ending with a left down a long hallway." I looked back and forth between everyone and they just stared blankly at me.

"Don't dawdle now, I'd like to get out of the maze sooner rather than later." I said and marched passed Arthur and took the first left.

"Left!" I called out as I took the path and I could hear Arthur groan slightly.

"Left!" Another fork came and went with another left taken.

"Right!" I continued this until we got to the final left and lo and behold there is a long hallway that seems to lead to an expansive chamber. I come up beside Arthur and sling an arm around his shoulder.

"It's okay Note, you did good for you first time. Just sometimes you're seniors get bored going round in circles for 3 hours." I clap him on the shoulder and walk off, his body had started shake in anger at me, so I figured I shouldn't tease him too much more.

Exiting the hallway into the open room we find that the walls of this cavern are mirror like with spikes coming off of it. The spikes at the right angle blend in with the wall and could prove tricky for new adventurers. A gentle mist flowed through the room and a soft humming played and echoed off the walls of the chamber. Another sound illusion.

This time I protected everyone's ears with my sound magic, and used my own sound magic to find the source of the foreign. It leads to a large bat like mana beast, the Echoing Cave Bat, known to use its sound magic to echo a sleep inducing hum off cave walls before draining you of blood. It's bite is a paralytic rather than venomous.

With its lullaby not working it let out an ear piercing screech and leaped off the roof of the cave. The 6 foot tall bat flew above us and called its colony, that previously blended in with the roof, to attack us. Thousands of smaller bats of varying sizes began to swoop down at us, they were of different species, some using wind, fire and others entirely of a venomous bite.

Me and Jasmine moved beside the Mahpur brothers and let Arthur have his moment. He fueled his body with mana as well as fire to his sword, originally he didn't use any mage type abilities on his journey, but now he would at least perform his augmenter attacks. This way he still got the practice with his sword and made combat slightly easier, as was evidenced by his first swing that killed 2 bats in contact and then a slash of flames extended past killing 5 more.

He continued these flaming slashes as the bats approached and eventually the Echoing Cave Bat had enough and let out a powerful screech that vibrated the cavern with its sound magic. Something in it caused the spikes in the mirror like wall to shoot off at random causing us to have to deflect them. I could only imagine the kind of damage that screech would do without our ears being protected by mana.

Arthur slashed a few more smaller bats before he finally got tired of the endless waves and did a jumping slash towards the dungeon boss. With a screech all the bats immediately changed course and dived for Arthur, only for him to let out few rapid slashes and then spinning. He wasn't able to get a hit on the boss, but he did take out a lot of the annoying mob like bats. It also seemed like this bat can at the very least control the colony instantly.

Growing angrier and angrier as it's colony died the Echoing Cave Bate flung itself off the roof of the cave in a dive bomb, releasing a continuous sound wave onto Arthur that made him shake from the force. However he tended his body and lowered his stance, waiting for the giant bat. As it closed in, though he stumbled, Arthur side stepped and slashed down at the neck. It wouldn't have killed it, but he was channeling fire magic through his sword so the slash extended past the blade and removed the head of the bat. Ending the battle and the ceaseless echoing of its screech, most of the colony flew off to other parts of the cave, but some charged in revenge at Arthur.

It only took a few minutes, but he eventually killed the remaining ones before flapping down on the ground and released a giant breath. He looked over to me and Jasmine and yelled in annoyance.

"You could have helped!" I just shook my head and Jasmine had as small smile.

"I did, my sound magic protected your ears from its attacks. Just normal mana enhancement to your ears wouldn't have counteracted the illusion side of its attacks." He just huffs and flops back on to the ground again, just laying there. Looking around I see a multitude of severed bat wings and heads as well as charred ones from his fire magic.

"Well you can take break, I guess you've earned it after that fight. Too bad you charred most of the usable parts of the bats." He just ignored me and I figured it was probably deserved, so while he laid around we started picking up any parts worth taking as well as the beast cores.

The thousands of smaller bats are only D rank by themselves, so they won't sell for much but the Echoing Cave Bat is a solid A rank and should go for a good bit. A couple hours passed before we were all sitting around a small campfire after having looted all the mana beasts. We were waiting for Arthur to explore the treasure room at the end of the cavern. The fox was in Jasmine's lap as we sipped tea, and the Mahpur brothers poured over their maps together to make sure they were as accurate as possible.

Arthur eventually joined us around the campfire and begrudgingly took the offered tea and I had to reprimand him.

"Good tea should not be drank in a foul mood." And I swiped it back with mana strings and watched as his hands reached out in vain for the cup. Jasmine and the others chuckled lightly at the display.

"Please may I have the tea?" He asked, and though he still sounded grumpy, he did defeat a dungeon boss and nearly 500 weaker bats. So I lowered the tea back into his hands.

"Hurry up, so that we can loot the treasure room and get out of here. I'd like to see the sun again, I'm pale enough as it is." Everyone seemed to deadpan at me.

"You're wearing an outfit that covers your whole body, of course you're pale." Arthur said cheekily, and I made my mana strings visible hovering just above his cup. He pulled it away and glared at the floating strings.

"That's not the point Note." I retract the strings and return back to my own cup of tea, and see Jasmine shaking her head. The time passed slowly as everyone nursed their teas and the River Croc meat I passed around, until finally Arthur was rested enough to want to leave. The treasure room, as expected of an unexplored dungeon, was packed with gold, and various weapons and items.

Arthur obviously got first pick, choosing some necklaces and a fine pair of gloves most likely for his mother and sister. Once he was done the rest of searched through, finding bits and bobs that really didn't amount to too much. The best part of this dive was going to be the gold split between the 6 of us. Arthur would the biggest share, having killed the boss, and the rest would be equally distributed to us with the guild getting a 5% cut.

With over 20,000 gold coins that ended up being a pretty decent pay day for everyone, also with this being Arthur's second A rank dungeon he only needs one more A rank mission to rank up to A. With treasury looted and pockets, or dimension rings, full we headed back out to the surface which went much faster with the map made by the brothers and only took us 30 minutes to make it back to sunlight.

We shook hands and bid farewells to the Mahpurs as they took the guilds share back with them since they were heading straight back to the guild in Xyrus. We however decided to head back to Jasmine's clearing, to rest for a few days before trying to get any new quests. The return trip was uneventful, much like the following year.

~1 Year Later~

We were walking through a guild hall in the city of Blackbend, we had had an escort quest in this city from Xyrus and just turned it in. Our names had traveled quite a bit during these last 12 months, mine was already popular but now "Note" was growing more known as well. Even Jasmine's name circled more, one for being one of the few female AA rank adventurers as well as for being part of the trio with Rez and Note.

However we were currently leaving the guild hall with complicated feelings. I had gotten a letter. The letter was from my parents and apparently they had a message from Cynthia for me. Me and Arthur were currently both 10, and he was to attend the academy at 12. He still had a year and half before he attended, but me with wanting to be Student Council President needed to attend a year early.

I was to shadow the current President as they would be graduating at the end of this next school year that starts in June, sadly this means I would have to leave Arthur and Jasmine to continue on by theirselves. Though Arthur, through my training was already a dark yellow stage augmenter, is strong enough I hope to see him progress further by the time he comes here

So I said my goodbyes to Jasmine and Arthur and took the gate back to Xyrus. It felt like a new place every time because we usually just used Blackbend City's guild hall or Jasmine would retrieve our quests from the guild, so besides for birthdays me and Arthur didn't step foot in Xyrus for over a year now. I took quick strides through the square, garnering looks from passerby's, though I've gotten used to that at this point.

Like I was told Gerald was waiting with the carriage in the square so I ducked into an alley to change before walking towards him in my normal attire. A white undershirt, covered by a black jacket that had the leaves folded just passed my elbow. A fine black leather belt, and black pants reaching down to a pair of white shoes. As well as my katana resting on my left hip. My hair had grown longer in these years, now reaching my upper mid back while tied up in a ponytail.

Gerald opened the door to the carriage and gave a small bow as I stepped in.

"Good to see you again, young master. Who might your furry friend be?" I smiled as it truly had been a while since I had seen Gerald.

"It's been too long Gerald, and this is Nightmare fox I found as a cub during my journey. After training it a little, I've decided to give it to Lilia. Whether bond or pet I don't know, but it should protect Lily well enough from most problems." He nodded to me as he shut the door and climbed into the driver's seat, and we pulled off back to the Helstea Manor. It was currently mid May, and the Xyrus school year didn't start until the second week of June. Though I decided to go ahead and come back, so that I could relax from the constant adventuring everyday. Although I did have another reason besides that, but it will have to wait a little while as I want to make an artifact or maybe enchant my Rez mask with something that will help.

Because I want to see what's in the ocean….

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Author's Note

I know I know, time skip through the adventure arc. But honestly writing dungeon dives get repetitive. Especially when you're trying to not make each one super dramatic lol. I had thought of putting them on a long term escort mission, but that would just be doing what Jaron has already done.

Which is why I decided to do a timeskip and have Jaron shadow the current student council President. I did this because that's the way I understood Tessia's situation at the academy. During her speech she says she's a first year but she was there the year prior as a disciple of Cynthia. So Jaron will learn the President responsibilities from the current President and Tessia will become Vice President.

Also i don't really know what I'm going to do by exploring the ocean, but it's kind of whatever I want. Surely there are some nasty beasties down there and maybe some ancient things. I really don't know, but I'm sure I'll think of something . Maybe a sharknado! Jk

This will be the last stock piled chapter and the next one will be written after I come back from my mini vacation. See you then.

Thanks for reading.

-SocioPhobia