NOVEL NEXT Chapter 91: Dungeon Start
Gin didn't directly make Aria think that he was dangerous. He was only a suspicious presence.
However, those two humans still carried a similar vibe. Like a snake wanting to pounce at their prey at any given moment.
Aria kept her eyes peeled onto Gin as she swept through him over and over again, trying to find out exactly why she was feeling so off upon being in close contact with him.
After doing it for more than a minute, she finally gave up as she couldn't point out the real reason. She turned her head to Aria, feeling resigned. "Are you ready to go in?"
She knew that the girl had problems in fighting, so she didn't want her to feel uncomfortable. Especially now that they were going to enter a joint cooperation. Amiable feelings were important.
"I am, we can go whenever you want to," Alena had a significant amount of trust in Aria, and she had decided to follow her judgement.
"Miss Schreiner, this is just a fair warning, but don't stick your head too much into others' problems. You will just create more troubles for yourself.. And potentially those around you. The saying curiosity kills the cat.. Happens way too often in real life, you know? You never know when you will trip and fall over something that you shouldn't have approached.." Gin chuckled as he spoke. "Oops, I might have spoken too much. My advice ends there,"
"...Stop," Aria's eyes narrowed as she approached Gin with a suspicious glance. "Since when did I tell you what my name is?"
The man addressed her as Miss Schreiner, but she had actually never said her name out loud.
"That must have been a slip up. I also work as an informer, you see? You may ask the one beside you, Miss Schreiner. Miss Croft can vouch for my service. It's not really that much of a big deal. It's not a surprise that a candidate of the upcoming A-ranked dungeon subjugation would garner quite a bit of attention to themselves. Of course I needed to do some research here and there as to keep myself up to date," Gin calmly responded.
Aria was afraid that the man hid something more than that. Her instincts told her so, and how many times have her instincts did her wrongly?
"Miss Schreiner, I do not have any interest in regards to my customer's personal matters. I only want to make the transaction. The three hours I gave to you will start right now to speed the process up," Gin decided to shift the topic and pulled out a stopwatch, showing a countdown displayed on the screen.
Losing interest in the man that did not budge, Aria pursed her lips in discontentment.
Gin definitely knew something. It irked her, but she couldn't do anything. Besides, Gin's existence was profitable to her, at least for now. The moment the world changes and becomes more saturated in dungeons, however, his services would be less needed.
"Are you finally deciding to go in?" Seeing Aria turn around to face the gate, Gin asked.
"Don't slack off," Aria casually warned.
"I won't, our company prioritizes customer satisfaction! I'll be put at risk of being fired if I dared to play truant," Tilting his head, he assured the pair waving both of his glove-clothed hands near his face, indicating disagreement towards Aria's warning.
"Good," Aria casually commented.
Entering the gate without looking back, Aria's movements was followed by Alena who did the exact same thing.
In the vicinity, only Gin was left behind, staring meaningfully at the gate in front of him.
Gin's cheeky expression immediately dissolved into nothingness after Aria and Alena disappeared.
"..What a troublesome customer she is. The Fourth and Seventh <Player>... Hah, if the boss didn't ask me to reel these two in, I wouldn't have gone to South Korea in the first place,"
"The boss should already be in this city.. When will he contact me? Don't tell me, he's slacking off somewhere and forgot my existence?!"
Sighing, he began operating his power, blocking off the Association's detector.
_______
Inside the dungeon, Aria and Alena were currently inside a forest. Dungeons had a massive variety of settings, from the monsters to the surrounding areas. This time, it was a forest terrain.
"Ao! What is this.. everything is covered by..." Alena exclaimed, glancing at the sight warily.
The air was colder than usual. Every time it brushed against their body, it made them tingle.
Aria's brain began to work out the possible speculations of monsters and boss that would come out of a forest. Those that usually laid within forests.
"Wild beasts would be the most probable option," She manoeuvred around the thick trees and tried to find the anomaly within the numerous plants.
Wild beasts of all types had their own specific advantages, and many of them worked well inside a forest habitat.
However, even after walking for some time, they found nothing but plants. There were no animals, no enemies in sight. It was the first time this happened. Normally, the enemies readily greeted them with hostility and launched attacks indiscriminately.
Aria couldn't see the end of this realm, she could only view a vast sea of trees. She imagined this dungeon having a lot of stages and shuddered. Three hours. The set time Gin gave her. Counting the time the Association needed to process this dungeon, they should be able to afford a couple more minutes. Would it really be enough? She didn't even know what she was up against.
"There isn't much to work with.." Aria sighed. She would've preferred it if the enemies just showed straight up. She would rather fight them instead of just roaming around with no dangers like this.
She kept seeing nothing but plants.
"No.. wait. If the boss is a plant - based.." Just as Aria talked, a buzzing sound entered the pair's ears.
Finally, the dungeon's greeting started.
"So it was these insects? Suitable to a forest terrain, indeed. Where else would they be? Just great," Aria mobilized her vines and observed the monsters' movements. "I'll buy time for you. Summon any creature you have, I realized that the experience points are distributed no matter how much you contribute to the killings. You just need to try your hardest to injure them, we will level you up for the time being until your attack power is raised," Aria said, explaining the tactics they were going to use.
"Understood!" Alena retreated slightly before beginning to chant her spells. The creature she prepared to summon was a slime, a creature she had managed to make into her puppet after much troubles.
To obtain the monster, she had to cage the slime and restrain it, then damaging it again and again just to finally deplete its life and gain control over the creature. The slime was not just any ordinary slime, however.
It was the result of various testings, and could be said to have been patched up in its various departments. Its stats had been raised farther than the normal slimes.
The insects moved in a swarm, and their diversity was prominent. With a single glance, Aria could see that they ranged from bees to flies, wasps, mosquitoes, and many more.
Of course, they weren't normal insects. Their sizes were enormous. Some were the size of a grape, but the others grew as big as an apple.
"[Scarlet Vines]," Aria summoned the rampaging vine, wanting to use it as a weapon this time. In the previous dungeon, this vine had helped her, especially since it didn't cost much mana if used correctly.
Aria wanted to train her vines more since she had complete mastery of her water spirit Dianthe, and Rallaka had his own fighting experiences. He needed no training because he could move and make favorable decisions on his own even without her guiding him.
She controlled several vines at once, forming a lethal weapon against the insects who stayed together as swarms. It was much easier to hit them.
Not long after, Alena successfully summoned the Silver Slime, her one and only successful puppet that could be used. She notified Aria of her presence and started cooperating with her.
The slime had several important functions that Aria was truly grateful for.
For example, its mucus could act as an adhesive. This was essential, because the insects separated after being hit once or twice. Battling against singular targets would just be a waste of mana for Aria.
Not only that, the slime was able to enlarge its size, with the potential of growing up to the size of a huge boulder. Although it didn't do much damage, there were ways to utilize the ability.
The two worked together with high compatibility. Aria would wrap her vines around the larger insects, whilst the smaller ones would be swatted like a fly. The victims would then be gathered in one place by the vines, which would be wrapped in the slime's mucus to help with the transport.
Then, Alena's slime would engulf them in one go, effectively trapping them inside with no other choices but to dissolve inside the silver jelly - like creature.