NOVEL NEXT B1 | Chapter 49 - The Battle
Alexia
After lying on the ground for nearly five whole minute just to catch my breath, I finally reach out to touch the Legendary Feat notification that still hasn’t vanished yet. The notification then changes in an instant to show details on the benefits of the feat itself.
Legendary Feat – The First Clear
As the first to clear a dungeon in the new dimension, your first loot box in every dungeon will always give you an item of a single Tier higher than what it would’ve otherwise given.
You are also given the General Skill known as Dungeon Map.
{You will now be given the General Skill, Dungeon Map!}
[*New General Skill* – Dungeon Map: The user may now open and fill in a dungeon map for whatever dungeon they are in simply by moving around the dungeon. Hidden areas will be shown on the map when you reveal the area they are located on the map. Skill is automatically slotted due to free open slots.]
My eyes widen in shock at the skill that will make dungeoneering a breeze.
Wait, or will it?
Dungeons are different for every party that goes into them, so will the dungeon even have the same layout the next time I enter one after filling out the map and clearing it?
I frown at that thought for several seconds before looking over and finding a large door at the end of the cavern where the large boss’s pool of poison used to be. And on that note, I only just now realize that all of the poison in the cave is gone.
So that’s nice.
Either way though, I would rather not step outside of the dungeon looking like… I glance at myself. Like this.
My armor is pretty much in tatters. There isn’t any left around my arms and legs, leaving them both mostly bare. Meanwhile my torso is still mostly covered, even if there are cuts opened up pretty much all over it. But those openings are stained with purple glitchy blood, so it’s fine.
I would rather not walk out of this dungeon looking like this though. So I turn around and begin heading back towards the spring that is located earlier in this boss room. The one that both heals me and repairs my armor.
Then I can go ahead and leave the dungeon and find Astrid.
I just hope she’s okay.
At the base outside of the dungeon
Several minutes ago, right before the System Notification
Astrid quickly starts the battle off by appearing in the leader of the larger group’s shadow before using her Shadow Blade skill to create a dagger made purely out of shadows that she then uses to stab the neck of the man, surprising him and managing to kill him in a single move. A move that sets everyone else in motion as fireballs and bolts of lightning begin flying down towards the lower leveled people in William’s group and the group belonging to the guy she just killed. Meanwhile Alara and the princess’s fiancé, Reginald, jump down from the trees and target William and the other guy.
Then everything begins to go wrong.
Out of nowhere, several new people appear as if they had a camouflage lifted off of them. And at the front of the group is their own group’s traitor, who they weren’t able to capture in the end.
At least Cass was never told the details of our plan. Which was probably on purpose.
The skills sent by the magic users on Astrid’s side of the battle quickly spread out to attack the newcomers as well, but now that they’re outnumbered, Astrid finds the idea of them winning a lot less likely.
Then a System Notification appears in everyone’s vision and echoing in their heads. One that at first annoys Astrid until she reads what it says.
Legendary Feat – The First Clear
Alexia Knight has cleared the first dungeon in the System Reset and in the dimension!
Astrid’s jaw drops open, and at the same time, the dungeon directly on the edge of the island inside of their own base suddenly shoots a bright purple pillar of light into the sky. And all of the people in the base and around it stop fighting immediately.
Then silence fills the base with everyone staring in the direction of the dungeon, just waiting for someone to leave it.
But no one ever does.
Astrid’s twin never leaves.
Is she… just not gonna come out, or what?
A few minutes pass in silence before the crown prince suddenly raises his sword into the air and slashes down towards Alara, once more engaging in combat. And this leads to everyone else returning to their fights as well, including Astrid who jumps from shadow to shadow in assassination attempts that only succeed twenty-five percent of the time thanks to their group already knowing about her.
Damned traitor and scouts.
Astrid grits her teeth when one of the newcomers suddenly appears in front of her in a flash of blue light, making her realize it’s most likely a spatial magic user.
Shit.
She ducks out of the way of a strike from them, only to try to respond with one of her own before they teleport away out of nowhere. But Astrid quickly teleports herself into a nearby shadow, avoiding the sword that suddenly cuts through where she was just standing.
When she looks up at the man’s face that she’s fighting, she realizes that he’s also a noble. One from a family famous for its spatial magic.
“You’re interesting,” he says, the man smirking slightly as his long black and blue hair blows in the wind. He’s wearing a set of the inferior armor that the System had given everyone, and holding a sword that isn’t the inferior sword given to sword users. “Let’s play.”
The two then continue teleporting over and over again in an attempt to attack the other, but neither of them land any clean blows. And over the course of several minutes, with their battle going across the entire base with the two of them simply flowing through all of the other battles occurring, Astrid finally makes a mistake thanks to her mana reserves beginning to run low.
She slips after teleporting to the wrong place, following which the man manages to cut her cheek, Astrid only barely pulling her face back quickly enough to avoid getting any more damage done to her. Then she teleports away again and the two once more find themselves in a stare down.
Astrid briefly glances at everyone else in the large battle occurring throughout the base, only to find that her side is losing pretty badly. Around half of their number are already dead, with another fifth wounded. Meanwhile the enemies, who already had the numerical superiority, still have a little over half of their number remaining and are pushing to clean things up as if they were in a rush.
Damnit, this isn’t looking-
A bright light suddenly shines from the direction of the dungeon, making everyone pause in their battles once more to look over at it. But since the dungeon is at a lower elevation than the battles, no one can actually see what’s going on over there.
Instead, all they hear is a light groaning sound as if someone was stretching before a voice very familiar to Astrid echoes through the now silent base, “Man, it’s good to get out of those cramped caves!”
Astrid feels her eyes begin to water for some reason.
Probably allergies.