A Side Villain…

The third floor of Origin Dungeon

 

Teleporting with the help of the system's spatial rift is a completely different experience from that of the teleporting pod in the academy. The pod has not been refined to contain the dissonance caused by teleporting hence hurting the user in the process.

 

The spatial rift on the other hand feels much more smooth and refined, it was like I didn’t even make a spatial jump and only the surroundings near me had changed but from the experience of the game I know it was not that. Currently it is the same third floor infested by goblin teams and to advance on the next floor 10 percent more killing is required.

 

“Hmm, instead of me going to them why don’t I make them come to me?”

 

That was a good idea though the execution was the key and he has to make sure to keep it small to not attract more than necessary which in turn could jeopardise the entire situation.

 

“Let’s see, Spells.”

 

“Where did I get that Raijin spell?” 

 

“Oh yeah! The goblin soldiers and commanders were using elemental short swords but to give me an AOE skill, the system is generous.”

 

EEEEK!!

 

Amidst his interaction with the system Akira heard some voices coming from behind and from the looks of it the goblins were nearby so he took out the new sword that his father gave him and began going towards the direction from which the voice was coming off.

 

After just a few of minutes of walking he was now standing at the entrance of a dimly lit cave and from the foul stench coming out of that cave he knew that a large number of goblins were present inside that. At first he wanted to get away from this place as the danger level was much higher than he could handle.

 

But on second thought wasn’t this a chance of group extermination? So he made a plan but still it was risky hence an escape route had to be kept open if he failed in the group extermination.

 

Akira channeled mana in his hand and soon several fireballs began to form and then in the next instant all of them were shot inside of that cave. The fireballs hit the inner wall of the cave and a huge explosion went off, then came the pitiful cries of the creatures inside of it but Akira knew that the explosion couldn’t damage too many of them as most of the goblins hided themselves deep and his fireball didn’t had that much range.

 

Now that the bait was thrown all he had to do was to wait for the right opportunity to strike at them so he quickly stepped back and went into hiding. Soon a group of goblin soldiers holding blunt swords, holed shields. 

 

There were also some goblin commanders and goblins mages present but since this was only the third floor their attacks would not be that strong. But if he doesn’t pay attention then things might go south.

 

EEHHH!!

GRGHHH!!

 

The goblins were fanatically searching for the one behind all this but since he was already in hiding they couldn’t find him and this made them more angry. The commander told all of them to scatter around and look for anything but before they could do dark black clouds began to form above them and soon the entire atmosphere changed to leaving them awestruck.

 

Akira came out of his hiding and has now completely charged the Raijin spell and with the dark clouds now rumbling and producing occasional sparks he knew that this is the moment, so he concentrated on the attack and yelled,

 

“Raijin, unleash yourself.” That was his chuunibyou side coming up but nonetheless the spell was unleashed on the group of the goblins who didn’t have a chance to even think of what happened as they were instantly fried.

 

The goblins mages tried to defend themselves by putting a shield around but against the Raijin it couldn’t stand up, the commanders were quick on their feet but the lighting was even quicker and unless you were not in its attack range you were not safe.

 

The lighting show continued for a couple of minutes and when it subsided the entire vicinity was filled by the smell of charred flesh and the ashes of the dead goblins. The dead creatures had left a lot of core stones all in different sizes which would fetch him a good amount of money at the exchange centre.

Surprisingly even after this much killing he has only levelled up by two levels indicating how much difficult it is to level up at higher levels and there is still the fact that this floor has not been cleared by him.

‘Sigh’ 

 

“This spell is great but the amount of mana it costs is quite big, I need to be careful in using this.” He was right, the Raijin spell was created by the god of thunder himself and granted to the people of this land as a gift of worshiping him. So to use a divine spell the mana cost is astounding.

 

After resting and collecting all the core stones dropped by the monsters he headed out to somewhere else as since a huge explosion was bound to attract groups of monsters and fellow adventurers which he was averse to meeting at the current moment.

 

On the same floor a group of third year students from the origin academy were also present, they were not here for the levelling up or killing some goblins to vent their anger or something like that, they were searching for a rare gel that is produced at the depths of the same cave Akira had just left.

 

The three students were walking in the direction of the cave and it was then that they heard the rumblings of the clouds and thunder being pounded again and again at one location. One of them got excited and said,

 

“Holy shit! Guys did you hear that?” He was Jeremy, one of the students from the 3-B.

 

“I don’t know what happened there but believe me you don’t want to be in the middle of that attack.” Another male member Derek said.

 

“Jeez, aren't you guys overreacting? It’s just a simple lighting based attack.” The only girl in the group Kei said.

 

The three of them were nothing special in the looks department, had average face and average build but given the fact that they were in 3-B their strength must be something remarkable.

 

 

“True but to still use an attack of that intensity on the third floor? That guy must be pissed by the goblins.” Jeremy said and laughed which was accompanied by the other two.

 

“Oi, oi, don’t you think that the location is awfully close to the cave we are going through?” Derek interrupted in between.

 

“Shit! you are right. I swear to god if something happens to that cave I am gonna rip your heads off.” Kei said as originally they were supposed to come here yesterday but the boys had a party to attend and they refused to come.

 

‘Gulp’ 

 

The boys were panicked by that prospect and they knew better than anyone else what an angry Kei looked like so they used their fastest movement spell and hurriedly made their way to the cave.

 

When they reached the location of the cave the scene infront of them was too much to look at even for them. The smell of burnt flesh, the looming feeling of death permeated the air telling them the intensity of the battle and the attack used which they had severely underestimated.

 

Kei too was disturbed by this but then again it was a dungeon and it was supposed to be like this. She just hoped the cave would be a better situation than the outside. They went inside the cave to search for it but on the inside too the walls were burnt and nothing was left.

 

The gel that they were searching was behind the walls but now under the intense heat it has evaporated and only small amounts of it were present in the upper corners and places which were left by the fire. This was a bad thing, their assignment for this month was based on this and now they are left stranded.

 

“Umm hey Kei I feel like my cat is calling me so I am leaving.” Jeremey said and tried to sneak away.

 

“Yeah she is calling me too sorry Kei I would love to stay but it is important.” Derek too was sneaking away.

 

They turned back and tried to leave the dungeon without making any voices and had just reached the entrance of the cave when a ear deafening voice was hurled at them making them stop in their tracks,

 

“YOU TWO!!!”

 

Akira on the other hand was facing two goblin commanders and an annoying mage who would attack him in between his combat with the commanders. It was only due to the fact that the previous Akira had swordsmanship that he could fight with these two big guys at the same time.

 

One of the commanders pounced his big hammer on him which he evaded with the quick steps but when he wanted to counter attack a fireball came in his direction forcing him to construct a water shield and move back to make some distance between them.

 

It was not going to be easy to defeat the two commanders without taking care of the mage first so he decided to change tactics and attack the mage first. He used quick steps to arrive near the commanders and attacked them with his sword only to get blocked by the huge shield one of them had, the mage saw this opportunity and casted another fireball towards him to which he jumped in mid air and dodged.

 

Still in the mid air he casted his own blue fireball and hurled it towards the mage giving him no chance to make a shield or allow the commanders to save him and sure enough the attack hit him and pulverised the mage. The commanders made a loud shout,

 

AARRGHH

 

He then used his third spell blitz bolt to make small lighting bolts which attacked the commanders with great speed and pinpoint accuracy rendering them immoblie for a short moment and it was all he needed to make quick work of them.

 

He used his momentum and came near the goblins which anticipated a sword attack and hence put up their shields but he went under them and slashed at their vital parts which were just around their hearts. The goblin commanders were gobsmacked and couldn’t respond to it resulting in their death. 

 

“Haah- hah it was ‘hah’ so much fun!.” He exclaimed while lying down on the ground, having these life and death battles were indeed something else compared to the mundane jobs of the world he came from.

 

“Now I understand why people in anime loves fighting so much, it is so so fun.” Looks like someone is becoming a battle junkie.

 

“This floor should be completed right? There is no way it isn’t.”

 

 

“Cool, let’s meet the creatures on the fourth floor.”

 

But before he could head towards the next floor he heard some human voices coming from nearby which startled him as this was the first time he was so near to another group of adventurers.

 

There were a couple of unsaid rules in the dungeons, first was don’t make mistakes as even a small one could cost your life and the second was don’t trust anybody else in the dungeons. Everyone was on their own when inside of the dungeon and that was the reason adventurers formed parties.

 

All the party members were registered in the guild hence creating a legal record of the person and they were also binded by their common goal of becoming stronger. A party most often had members which knew each other for a long time so there was that bond of friendship too and they could entrust others with their lives.

 

But all was not sunshine, tales of betrayal and deception among the party members was also quite widespread creating the seedlings of doubt in the new adventurers and their parties. But with years of staying together these doubts were put in the back of their minds.

 

There were also many adventurers which liked to loot other adventurers by making situations where one would be lured to help the other only to get trapped like a fly does in venus flytrap plants. Most of the first years and second years who had not seen these things would fall for tricks like this.

 

But Akira had seen this happening too many times in the game and that was the reason he was hesitating whether to go and check the voices because it could be a trap laid out for people just like him.

 

“Ahhh! Let’s just first watch it from afar and then make the decision.”

Back with the third year students, Jeremy and Derek were lying on the ground covered in bruises and blue marks all over their bodies, Kei was dusting her knuckles and her academy dress which surmised the current situation of the two boys lying on the ground.

 

“How long are you two planning to stay on the ground?” Kei asked in an annoyed voice.

 

“Aarghh.. It hurts, it hurts please Kei no more, no more, I can’t take this.” Jeremy pleaded while holding his body.

 

“Kei please no more, I haven’t even married.” Derek too pleaded while making a dogeza on the ground.

 

“Hmph! Treats you good for not doing as I said.” She said and started walking ahead, the two boys looked at each other and nodded to follow her from behind keeping a certain distance.

 

After a while all three of them were standing near a small pond, the water was stagnant and covered by green algae indicating the involvement of the eutrophication process. Since the water was stagnant it had started to smell weirdly and if not that these three had some experience they would not have been able to stand near it.

 

“Uhh Kei, not that I doubt you but why are we here again?” Jeremy asked in a timid voice not wanting to antagonise her and be in the same position.

 

“This is the place.” Kei replied and she was currently staring in the pond with the boys standing behind him.

 

“Which place?” Derek asked.

 

“It’s just because of you two that we had to come here.” She replied still not looking back at them and this confused the boys as she was not the type to talk like this.

 

Jeremy came ahead and shook her shoulders but she didn’t reply so he took her face and turned it backwards but after looking at her eyes he creeped out and took two steps back.

 

“What happened?” Derek came near him and asked.

 

“He- her ey-eyes.. Her eyes.. They are not the sam-same..” Jeremy was too afraid to say anything and in between he fell backwards.

 

Derek too was going ahead to look by himself but stopped as the water in the pond started making some ripples and some bubbles too started to come out of it, Jeremy who was already shocked by Kei was now even more afraid and Derek was just standing at his place waiting for the creature to emerge.

 

Kei was still standing near the edge of the pond and no matter how much the boys yelled at her or called her neither did she reply nor did she turn back. Derek being the somewhat courageous guy went ahead and tried to pull her behind but no matter how much he tried he couldn’t pull her.

 

Still thinking about what is happening he heard the stuttering voice of Jeremy from behind,

 

“It-it’s noo… use he.. He’s coming ou- out..”