For I Am A Side Character - 80: Hunting in a C-ranked Dungeon with a GF

Like that of a storm filled with hail, the sight before Jessica simply left her in awe and shock.

There were too many enemies in front of her that she could actually handle…

But she didn’t hesitate to move forward for the kill.

‘Take it steady…control your breathing…enhance your vision and your instincts with mana…’ these were the words she told to herself.

It has only been the start of this grueling battle against a hundred and already she felt like she needed to put one of her assets in display. Because she knew of the skill [Mana Reinforcement] which improves the overall quality of the chosen item, using the skill could ultimately raise her chances of survival. But she didn’t used it on her twin daggers…instead, she used it in her entire body.

‘Using 95% of my entire mana could let me use 5 minutes and 45 seconds of mana reinforcement into my body…after that, I might pass out again, so I have to make it count.’

She’s already tried this before against Soril in a spar…and thankfully, she knew just how much she can manipulate with this skill since she was quite competent with it. With her quality of control, she can raise her ability with not just 25% of an improvement but at the most 45%.

Making her 1.45 times more powerful than usual, but only for 5 minutes and 45 seconds.

Having no time wasted at all, she instantly used her skill.

[Mana Reinforcement!]

And like a blossoming flower, she took the attention of the enemy but she was was like a rose with a thorny stem. Each fishken that came after her were left with precise attacks under each scale. Some were Dead and other were brutally deader. From this sight, Soril didn’t have anything to worry from then on.

From here, Soril could attack with the fury of a true Aranean Warrior.

[Heavy Rush!]

If fishken were similar to that of a raining hail, Soril was simply that of a falling meteorite capable of wiping out a small village, but his aim wasn’t at a single fishken, no. Instead, he aimed himself down at the waters.

And as he fell, he caused quite a splatter that created a wave that disrupted the very nature of their habitat.

Each fishken that was in the water felt the force of his fall, where it caused a huge wave that forcefully carried the fishkens straight into the wall. They crashed without control.

*Crash!*

Each fishken who crashed into the wall, broke a bone or two.

While Jessica was fighting on the cliff, to make some space for her to move, Soril decided to handle things below on the waters.

From here, he could finally utilize that one skill that he has been training for the past couple of days now.

Although he hasn’t mastered it, he can use it in a level fitting for a place like this.

From underneath the waters, the moment he jumped out, he instantly used his skill.

[Steps of the Emissary Ghost.]

From here, he emitted a skill that enabled him to walk on water.

Because of how light his steps were, it simply entitled his body to become lighter like that of a ghost. In his current practice, he could only use it to this limit…but if he were to master it, he could potentially walk on air.

But for now, this was all that he could do. And he didn’t wasted any time by simply standing around.

From where he was, he was at an advantage. He could easily kill off the monsters who were found sticking their heads off on the surface of the water. So he dashed forward at a speed of an emissary ghost. Faster than the wind and silent like a feather’s touch.

Each fishken he came across were easily beheaded. And seeing his existence, they found him to be a threat, so they quickly submerged back to the deep waters.

As Soril was pacing himself on the water, Jessica just witnessed how he fought and couldn’t believe her eyes.

‘Is there for real?!’ she thought to herself, but soon enough, she got pushed back by the number of fishken circling her.

‘Fuck, focus…just focus!’

As Jessica had her focus back to the enemies, she quickly dealt with them one by one. It was obvious that Soril’s loud presence was catching the attention of the Fishkens…so some were more preoccupied of his existence rather than that of Jessica which gave her the chance to be more precise with her attacks, given that there were now less enemies.

Soon, the fishkens could no longer ignore the fact that Soril was the main problem of this entire area, so they changed their pattern…instead of running away from him, they actually had to be brave like the warriors that they were and fought him in a way that was to their advantage.

So they got into a position.

While Soril couldn’t get into the depths of the waters, the fishkens could and they started to form a circling position in the depths of the waters where they soon started swimming in circles. From this action, it soon formed into a maelstrom…which caused a stir in the waters. This position of an attack caused Soril to lose his footing. With how the waters were unable to keep still, he barely had the mastery to keep himself above water, so he decided to leave the waters and made his way back to Jessica’s side.

Usually the fishkens would do this to disrupt the boats who they planned to attack, but if it was against a man walking on water, it was just as effective.

From where he stood, he could see that Jessica was able to handle about 32 fishkens in just under 2 minutes.

“You okay?” he asked as he could see just how tired Jessica was.

“I…I’m fine. They got me in the ribs, but I should be fine.” she said as she acted tough for Soril.

“Okay…I’ll deal with that thing while you rest here. Okay?” he asked.

“O-okay.” she said.

And off he went. With his sword brought out, he ran on the side of the walls and jump off again.

From where he was, he was atop the eye of the whirling pool of water.

And he didn’t hesitate to bring out his strongest skill.

He decided to end this quick with how Jessica was starting to be weakened in the condition that she was in.

[Mountain Splitter.]

Directing the very form of his swing down to the middle, the force of his slash caused ripples that destroyed the whirl pool instantly. The mountain splitter was so powerful, its force actually dug deeper into the depths until it finally reached its ground, causing the waters before Soril to split.

Like how Mosses was able to split the seas, Soril did the same in this body of still water before him. And the fishkens who created the whirl pool were instantly defeated by that one skill.

It didn’t take long for the other fishkens to go back to the surface from all the chaos that was caused, and from it, Soril was back to hunting fishkens again on top of the surface of the water.

A minute and 45 seconds later…everything was finally over. And from this exact time, Jessica fell to the floor on her knees.

“…Haa, God I’m beat.” she said as she drop down on the ground.

As she was able to shut her eyes, soon enough, Soril came by her as she rested on the floor.

“I’ll set up the tent.” he said as he pulled another artifact from his mystical space bag.

From there, this artifact was similar to the armor that Jessica and Soril were both wearing. It was a foldable tent that had the necessities fit for camping inside a dungeon. A kitchen and a bed.

Made from the same blacksmith company, this tent capable of withstanding even from a disastrous level 5 storm.

So with that said, as the tent was instantly set up, Soril approached Jessica and carried her to the tent near its warm fire.

As he placed her on a soft bedding, Jessica instantly took off her foldable armor with a single tap of her hand and placed her armor near beside her. Leaving her with just her plain clothes on.

“…we should rest for a while. Go and sleep while I watch guard.” Said Soril as he looked worried on her condition. Although it would only take a few hours of rest to gain back her strength, Soril was still worried for her.

“thank you…I’ll wake…up…in a …bit.” said Jessica as she was slowly drifting into sleep.

With her sound asleep, Soril took this chance to prepare everything that could ultimately help Jessica in their raid on this dungeon. He wasn’t as tired as Jessica was, so he used this time to make something for her while she was resting.

“Hmm, I should make that.” he said as he turned his way to the kitchen of the camp.

***

A couple of hours later…

Jessica woke up and found that her strength was back, but her body was aching from the strain of the battle. So she remained in bed.

As she continued to rest, she noticed that Soril was by the fire. With his back turned to her, he looked to the fire as if he was mesmerized by it.

“…Soril?” she called to him. And as she did, Soril slowly turned his gaze to her.

“Oh, you’re awake.” he said.

“Here, wait a minute. I’ll go and prepare a plate for you.” he said as he stood up and started preparing a plate for Jessica.

“What did you make?” she asked.

“Its nothing much, but I made a hotpot from the ingredients we had left. Its seafood themed.” he said.

“You know how to make this?” she asked as he was surprised by this fact.

“It isn’t hard…you just need to follow the instructions in the internet. Luckily I have my phone with me and that I downloaded a bunch of cooking tutorials to help me cook.”

“…”

“Why are you silent all of a sudden?” he asked as he could see a furrowed expression on her face.

“Nothing, its just that I’m thinking about what you did back there…” she said as she looked somewhat uncertain.

“Was it about the fact that I was running on water?”

“Yeah…that and the other skill. The one where you split open the water in half.”

“Well, remember what we talked about back in the boat, you know…that one skill that used to put a strain on my hand once in the simulator.”

“Oh, so that was the mountain splitter? Huh…from its name alone, it really is powerful.” she said.

”Yeah it is, and the other skill is one of the skills I was able to learn using the elements of the dark. I called it the ghost steps.” he said as he added in a lie on his skill to hide the true origins of that skill.

“I’ve never heard of it before…is it common?” asked Jessica.

“I don’t know, but it might be. A lot of assassin type hunters uses this skill. Anyway, here, eat up.” said Soril as he handed Jessica filled plate of food.

“Thanks…” she said as she received the food.

“I also took care of the monster corpses…its sad to hear, but they didn’t have any precious items dropped. Not one at all.”

“Not one? Out of the hundred of them?” she asked.

“Nope, I even checked under water…what I found was nothing but sand and dirt.” he said.

“Huh, so that means that this entire dungeon doesn’t have any resource value at all…if that’s the case, we can only hope to find something in the end of this dungeon.” she said.

“Right. For now, we should wait a few more hours. Its already 9 PM, I don’t think we should move until tomorrow. We could use extra more hours to rest our body.”

“Okay.”

“…” from here, Soril turned silent as he watched the fire continue to burn.

“What’s wrong?” she asked as she got up and sat next to him by the fire.

“I counted your kills…over 55 dead. Its pretty impressive.” he said as he looked genuinely proud of her.

“…R-really?” and Jessica was somewhat surprised to hear that number.

“Although you took a few bruises, its clear to see that you’re a cut above the rest. I’m proud of you.” he said.

“…T-thanks, I couldn’t have done it without you.” she said as she felt embarrassed to hear those words.

And from there, the silence continued.

But as it stayed silent, Jessica suddenly puts her plate down and she leans to Soril’s body. The two, in their silent gaze towards the fire…they could feel each other’s heartbeat.

“Soril…” she said.

“Hmm? What is it?” he asked.

“Nothing, I just wanted to say you’re name.” she said as she cuddled next to him by the fire.

“…Jess.” in his soft voice, he called to her gently.

“Hmm?”

“I wanted to say thank you…”

“for what?” she asked.

“For being by my side.”

“…Hmm, to you too…I’m really grateful for what we have right now.”

“I mean it. I know what it means to be alone…to have no one by your side for a long time, but now that you’re here with me, I can’t imagine just how lost I would be without you…So I want to say, I love you.” he said as he remembered all his lonely days from his past and his present.

“Well, you are a bit of an Anti-social butterfly, but nonetheless…I love you too.” she said as she looked into his eyes and she made herself comfortable in his warmth.

The dungeon was a cold place…so naturally, warmth was necessary. It made it even more necessary with how the two youthful couple embraced each other in this cold dungeon.

If love was a fire, in the concept of these two hunters…it would never burn out.

The more they spend their time with one another, the more their love burned even brighter.