Pride or life

Olivia released. The arrows trailed the air with white light, knocking the majority of the purple spikes out before curving mid-air and impaling the three ant monsters on the wall.

Burmer rushed to Marie's side and held his shield up to protect her and himself from the incoming projectiles. The purple spikes landed on the tower shield one by one and bounced off as if they were pebbles. However, due to being in a rush, the dwarf had slightly misjudged the trajectory of all the spikes and one of them unluckily found its way into a gap in his armour and stuck itself into his leg.

"Gah!"

"Burmer, your leg! I'll heal you right away!"

"Save it, missy, this can wait."

Noticing a familiar shape that vaguely revealed itself in the shadows behind the ants, Burmer gritted his teeth and stomped forward holding his tower shield in the air with two hands. The shield glowed in blue light as he chanted the incantations of his spell.

"「Power of earth, grant me strength and tumble the ground」"

"「Earth Shatter」!"

Burmer Slammed the bottom edge of his tower shield into the ground, causing multiple blue cracks to appear. These blue cracks quickly spread forward towards the ants, shaking the ground more the further it travelled. When the cracks finally reached under where the ants stood, the blue cracks exploded, shattering the ground underneath and sending the monsters airborne.

Suddenly, Neo dashed out of the shadows at an unbelievable speed. The effects of his stealth shadow magic lingered as his figure left a trail of darkness in the air as if he was a phantom. His dual daggers shined from the lingering effects of Marie's spell as he speeds forward and slashes through all the airborne ant monsters, trailing two beautiful arcs of white light. All of the ants were sliced in half and evaporated away as blue mana before they hit the ground.

Standing there, Neo narrowed his eyes before spinning around and throwing one of his daggers towards a dark area of the ceiling. A small ant, which none of the other party members knew existed, fell and hit the ground, the dagger sticking out of its abdomen. It shrieked and kicked its legs around before falling still and melting away. Neo watched and smiled.

"The others might not have noticed you, but I did little guy. "

Neo stood there and looked around before contemplating to himself, spinning the daggers in his hands.

"Whatever these things are, that should be the last one... a whole pack of twenty-one of these strange things. I guess I should check around a little more and let the others rest. Who knows, maybe Olivia will give me a hug for it~"

As if she had sensed something annoying, Olivia turned her head and stared at the figure that was blending in with the shadows before losing track of it. Irritated, she cupped her mouth with her hands and shouted out at the darkness.

"I'm not giving you a hug, don't even think about it you caterpillar!"

"...darn..."

Satisfied with his distant whisper, she walked over to the other party members. They were currently inspecting the injuries Burmer has sustained from the fight. Marie was especially insistent about this.

"Burmer, Hurry up and take it off!!"

"Aight aight! No need teh be so assertive missy! "

"I'm serious, hurry up!"

Alice giggled as she watched the situation before noticing Olivia approach and smiled.

"Alice, have you and this barrel recovered?"

"Urgh, shaddap ye anvil..."

"Yes, thank you for worrying Olivia. I hope you're okay too."

"Hmph."

Alice gave a warm smile after seeing this. Elves were a prideful, beautiful, and powerful race in Sardonia that could live for hundreds of years. Normally they were very arrogant and placed their own morals and ambitions first. They also usually didn't see others as equals if they weren't also elves. Let alone worry about humans, most of the time they might not even bother talking to them. This alone was enough to let Alice know that Olivia truly cared for her and their party members, even if she would insult the male members very often.

"Dwarf. I guess you really are a little girl, making Marie worry like this."

"Oy elf, men tend teh stay away from crazy women ye know?"

Olivia's vein bulges.

"...What was that?"

"Stop you two!! It's my fault this happened, let me heal you!"

"Settle down missy, t'was just a joke."

"...Hmph"

After taking off the armour of his leggings, Burmer painfully plucked out the purple spike and noticed that a small part of the flesh around the injury had turned purple.

"Oh, poisoned too huh. Those buggers sure know how teh hunt."

"「Dear mother in heaven, grant me your light and heal the wounds of my ally」"

"「Healing Light」"

The spell flowed out from Marie's staff and engulfed the wound in light. The injury healed and quickly disappeared as if it was never there. That is if you left out the part where the area was still purple...

"Why is it still there? I-I'm sure I cast the spell correctly!"

"Calm down Marie, maybe if you try again it'll work!"

"A-Alright, here I go."

"「Dear mother in heaven...」"

"「Healing Light」"

Following Alice's advice, Marie recasts the spell under the party's watchful gaze. Light shined upon the area once more, except this time there was no wound to heal. The light disappeared and the purple area remained the same.

"Hm? This weird purple stuff is still on mah leg, ye staff not workin' priest girl?"

"I-I don't understand. Healing magic of the light element should be able to cure poison and diseases as well."

Panicked, Marie turned toward Alice to see what her decision on this matter was. She stood and held Burmer's leg tightly with her hand, lifting and hanging him upside down like he was a fish.

"Leader, we have to go back to the church and get him checked out. Look at this, it must be some new curse or disease that's never been discovered before, who knows what could happen!"

"Ah? There ain't a need teh do that missy! Also, aren't ye a lil' too strong teh be a priest?!? put meh down will ye?!!"

"No, Marie is right, we should go back and have it checked before anything bad happens to the barrel."

"Wha?! No wait!"

The dwarf somehow frees his leg from Marie's iron grip and nimbly lands on his feet. He then sprints quickly back and forth before hopping up and down and patting his leg.

"See, me leg is fine now, let's just forget this an' get on with the dungeon aright?"

"Listen here you stubby-legged barrel..."

Burmer and Olivia began bickering back and forth about the situation. One side worried about the party member's safety while the other insisted that the injury was nothing to worry about. Marie stood there on the side timidly while Alice tried to stop them from fighting. Their argument continued until they were interrupted by the voice of a person emerging from the shadows.

"Wah wah, I'm gone for a few minutes and you guys are now arguing? I heard everything so I know this is pretty important but let's just chill out okay?"

"Ah, my apologies lads..."

"...I'm ashamed."

"Though on that note, I'm with the big guy on this topic."

"Neo! I knew I could count on ye lad, Gahahaha!"

"W-What happened to not arguing!?"

"Now now, I'm not trying to start the argument again. But the opinions are two on two now. The final decision lies with the party leader, right Alice?"

Everyone stopped and awaited the magic swordsman's decision, causing her to silently weigh the pros and cons. Neo was carefree and annoying most of the time but when it came to work he was undeniably an irreplaceable member of the party. The fact that his class was a hybrid between assassin, thief, and scout made him very capable. He likely even heard the entire conversation from start to finish when he was scouting from very far away...

When it came to remote dungeon exploring like this, it wasn't surprising for an adventurer party to be gone for an entire month. As someone who had worked in the adventurer industry for over a decade, Burmer's professional pride would never allow their expedition to be ruined all because of him alone. Being able to receive a quest to explore a newly discovered dungeon was a huge and rare opportunity. A new dungeon meant loot, information, reputation, and most importantly, a huge amount of money. No one would want such an opportunity to slip by. Neo, as a fellow adventurer who understood, likely sided with him to not only protect his pride but to also balance the opinions of the party.

However, the opinions of the other half of the party were also very reasonable as they valued the safety of the party over their pride. Life was more valuable than any amount of money. Alice found herself in a dilemma.

"Alice." Marie tilted her head and smiled warmly. "No one will judge you for the choice you make, you are the leader."

Alice looked around and saw that everyone agreed and nodded toward her.

"Alright...let's continue the expedition."

"Gahaha! By the dwarf king's beard, I am grateful!"

Burmer and Neo celebrated with a high five while Marie and Olivia smiled helplessly.

"Very well, if you say so, Alice."

"I'm sorry you two."

"Think nothing of it."

The party members comforted Alice, assuring her that no one will hold grudges. The adventurers then spent the next few minutes cleaning up and prepared to continue their exploration of the dungeon. Neo pulled out his pen and parchment and mapped the area of the cave while Burmer checked the equipment of each party member. While each member was attending to their own task, Alice walked up to the dwarf and handed him her sword.

"Burmer, tell us as soon as you don't feel well okay?"

"Aight missy, don't worry about this toughy. We dwarves are known for being strong for a reason!"

Burmer smiled as he flexed his bicep and pulled out his sharpening stone. Alice smiled back helplessly and left him to his own devices. She was worried that even if he felt something was off with his leg he still won't say anything. But as the party leader, she was prepared to take responsibility.

"The moment I noticed something is wrong with him I'll knock him out and end the expedition..."

Alice mumbled to herself as she stared intensely at the back of the dwarf who happened to be scratching his ass.

"Huh? Why am I feelin' chills? Must be mah imagination..."