For I Am A Side Character - 94: Dungeon Liberation Event - Part 2
About an hour before he event started, I made the decision to look into my status profile after a long time.
Its been a while since I was able to check in on my profile status, and seeing how I was able to obtain the Steps of the Emissary ghost along with the Body of the Dark, both my strength, Endurance and Speed was able to grow quite largely even without the use of the stat points meant for my body.
[Profile:]
Candidate: NPC
Mission Status: Completed
Level: [50]-[ 55,000 exp until to the next level…]
Strength: 88(+40) –> 128
Endurance: 65(+50) –>115
Intelligence: 50
Agility: 89(+40) –>129
Mana: 65/65
[System Points: 35.5]
[Stat Points: 20]
[The Aranean Sword and Shield Form-style (Novice level)]
-Heavy Slash
-Heavy Shield Counter
-Heavy Block Stance
-Heavy Rush
-Mountain Splitter
-Shield breaker
[Mana Spear – (Proficient)]
[Mana Reinforcement – (Competent Level)]
[Ethereal Will of the Dark – (Proficient)]
[Enlightened Domain of the Dark – (Proficient)]
[The Steps of the Emissary Ghost – (Competent Level)]
[Body of the Dark – (Void Metal Level)]
[God’s Will]
With this much growth just receiving this skills, I know it was worth the pain of it all.
But seeing as how I have to remain hiding these skills by sealing them up with God’s will, I remain as typical B-ranked hunter as usual, but this time I have added a third seal to conceal even more of my power.
By now, all of my status should resemble that of a B-rank even when its measured by the Simulation machine and the hunter’s watch.
All that’s lacking in me now is my intelligence status which affects my capacity to us magic well. But right now, since I’m stacked with the physical offense, I don’t really have an issue with not using so much magic.
***
Now that the event has finally started, I can finally make due with focusing on my main mission.
[Mission #7: Find the Acrylic Elf Core Artifact.]
[Reward: Progression towards the next mission & 5+ System points.]
[Failure: Failure to Completion will cause the Hindrance of moving forward with the story.]
[Time Limit: 12 Hours.]
Seeing the time limit of this task, I still had half a day’s worth to look for the Acrylic Elf Core Artifact.
But the problem now lies with the fact that I’m not certain where this artifact lies.
Although I have some assumptions of where they can be, its not really something I can just move forward to do.
the first hint of where I can find this core, was through the context of what the story brings in the situation.
Right now, each problem revolves around this event…Although the story of the second volume spoke on about the origins of a race called the elves, in the story’s simple flow, it only ever progressed through focusing around the academy’s event.
Meaning, what I know for certain is that the item that god wants me to find is in this event.
But not once did I read about the item being here in the story specifically, in fact, the only item ever mentioned to progress the story was an item called the [Elven’s Road-Key] which was a key used to open the gate which was able to envelope the characters into the world of the elves.
‘…Is that it?’ I thought to myself.
Is God asking me to claim Elven’s Road-Key?
Then why not ask for that from the very beginning of this mission?
But if He’s asking for something other than that key itself, there must be a reason why.
Now thinking back on the story, the Elven Road-Key was already held by a group of a bunch of Devil-worshiping fanatics who had the ambition of opening a path into the world of the Elves. Their goal for doing this was simple, open a path for the demons who have already conquered another planet into this world. But once they opened the path to the elven road, they did not consider the fact that the Elven world has already been abandoned by the Demons due to its developing ruin.
Now when they were able to open a path to the Elven world, specifically, it was said that the fanatics were only able to this because of two major items. The Elven Road-Key and the blood of an Elf.
But once they opened it, an issue occurred that caused their plans to go haywire, causing them to fail and causing the characters in the story to be sucked in into the world of the elves due to their failure.
The reason why it failed was because they lacked the essence of one of the items, that being the blood of an elf.
The blood whom they were able to posses was none other than Juel himself who was captured by them during the academy’s event. And although Juel had the blood of an elf in his veins, it was an impure blood. The impurity of his blood caused the fanatics to fail in opening a path for the demons to pass through from the elven world.
Still taking out the element of Juel’s blood, there’s the issue with the Elven Road-key.
The Elven Road-key is probably the highest chance for me to gain some kind of clue to the Acrylic Elf Core Artifact. And if a I trace it back a little, the only people who knw about any kind of information on the elves are the Demon fanatics.
‘…So that’s it. If I can find a demon fanatic and interrogate him for some information, it may lead me to the Acrylic Elf Core Artifact.’ I thought to myself.
Now thinking back from the very beginning of the event, the first time the book mentioned something about the demon fanatics was about them lurking around academy. If so, I only have one chance at confronting them…
For now, I can just focus on the event.
As I made my way to the Mini-boss room assigned to our group, it seems that one of the three drones assigned to my group was following me. Even as I ran at a speed at a rather surprising rate, the drone was able to keep up at my speeds. The dungeon itself wasn’t a straight line, instead, it was a structure made like an ant’s nest. I’ve already memorized the pathway to the boss-room from the map and even as I ran from corner to corner, I was not able to lose the Drone.
‘…this is annoying.’
After a while, I finally came across a sight of ten D-ranked monsters. Seeing as how I was being watched, I couldn’t just easily kill these monsters like so. So as I pulled out a simple sword from my storage and started hacking them down right at their chest. It took me an annoying amount of time just cutting through them like so, but after that, I simply moved on.
‘…seeing as how there was that much monsters gathered near this area must mean that a possible Suckle Crystal Source must be nearby.’ I thought to myself as I know these monsters gather at a food source, its only common sense to assume that suckle crystals were nearby.
But still, I didn’t dropped by to mine those crystals, instead, I focused on moving ahead to the mini boss-room.
After a while, I was able to meet more monsters as I went closer to the boss-room…and to be honest, in my level of skill, this dungeon was not really challenging, so it didn’t really take that long for me to reach my destination. The only thing I had to consider was my image from the drone’s live camera.
When I finally made it to the mini-boss room, what I found was an empty path. Looking around, there wasn’t a single footprint in the area, so it must mean that not a single group has passed through here. So with that said, I sat with my back turned to the room and simply waited until my group was able to accomplish their task.
***
Meanwhile, as Soril was in the mini-boss room’s location waiting, Kenji and the others made a quick effort to run as fast as they can while a certain class group was chasing them from behind.
“Leave us alone you bastards!” he shouted as he felt incredibly nervous by the sheer difficulty travesty that they were in.
“Give us your crystals!!” shouted Class-E who for some reason was very vicious at that moment.
“Are you sure we can’t fight back?!” asked Jessica who was behind her group to serve as a shield from any invading enemy. Seeing as how she had the second highest fighting capability in the group, she had the responsibility to defend them.
Seeing as how they were being chased by Class-E, one would wonder how or why they were not fighting back. Well, it goes back a few minutes ago, where as they reached the crystal source and they were able to defeat the monsters surrounding their target, having to complete the mining process of these crystals, they were suddenly confronted by the laughing noises of what seemed like a goblin group.
Having to think that it was probably a goblin charging in to them, Jessica was ready to fight, but as the laughs got closer an louder, Jessica was suddenly reminded of something.
“wait a minute, there aren’t any goblins in this dungeon.” she said.
And soon enough, out from the darkness came the sight of six student who were weirdly very rabid-like.
“.…Hey, isn’t that class-C?” said Kenji who was familiar with one of the student’s faces.
“It is.” said Marilyn.
“Shit, are they here to take away our crystals?!” said Kenji as he was able to quickly grab on to two bags of the crystals that Thors was able to mine with the pickaxe.
“It doesn’t matter, we’ll fight them off here and now!” said Jessica who prepared herself to face off with the entire group.
While Thors hasn’t finished yet with mining the crystals, the rest of the group had to be prepare.
“Ready your weapons!” said Jessica.
As they did, out of the six students coming after them, onewas particularly faster. A boy who carried a small dagger came in at a rather unexpected speed.
As he came close enough, Jessica was able to intercept him by kicking him back to the group. The boy could not defend her attack and was able to receive the entire force of her kick, throwing him back to his group. And from his crash, the group did nothing but receive his body.
*BAAM!*
“..?” To Jessica’s wonder, she was curious as to why they couldn’t catch him after all that. And more to the point, something felt weird about the way the boy’s body reacted to her own kick.
And to her curiosity, out they raised from the floor like a couple of zombies.
“What the-”
“CRYSTALSSS!!!” shouted the students who rose up like a couple of madmen.
Now that jessica was able to get a close look, she noticed the changes in their bodies, not just their reaction, but their eyes were red…unnaturally red…red like blood.
“What is that?!” asked Kenji as he too noticed it.
“I’m not sure, but keep mining! I feel like something wrong happened to their group, but we don’t have the time to figure it out.” she said.
And soon enough, Tony and Kenji started assisting Thors in mining the crystals.
While they did that, Jessica, Marilyn and Zelisha made their efforts by holding them back.
And so it went.
With how red and open their eyes were, Marilyn was able to cast a bright light to blind them for a quick second.
And out came next was Zelisha firing a special thunder elemental arrow down to their direction. It caused them to be shocked and stiffen easily as it did.
But that wasn’t enough.
Soon after they feel to the ground from Zelisha’s attack, they then rose back up again and they came charging like zombies.
“Damn it, Marilyn, cast a barrier now!” said Jessica who felt completely taken aback by the group’s weird behavior.
And like so, Marilyn was able to cast a barrier big enough that it was able to block one side of the dungeon.
“Good, hold that for now Marilyn, so that we can gather those crystals.” said Jessica.
“I don’t get it, why can’t we just fight them back?” asked Zelisha.
“Look at him?” Jessica pointed to the one student who was able to charge at her first. The student who carried a dagger.
“?!” as Zelisha turned to that student, she was shocked to see that his arm was completely bent, yet he did not give the reaction of any form of pain whatsoever.
“I did that to him and yet he didn’t backed down.” she said as she looked extremely woried for the boy.
“Fine, lets gather those crystals then.” said Zelisha as she started helping with the crystals.
Something was wrong with those students. Their behavior was completely unnatural…it wasn’t something that any of the Class-C group has seen before.
And seeing as how they didn’t know anything about it, they instead focused on gathering the crystals.
A few minutes later and every crystal was finally mined from the source. With Thors carrying two bags of crystals and Kenji, Zelisha and Tony carried one each, they had five bags of crystals perfect for passing the event.
So with that said, it was finally time to move forward from here.
As Jessica gave the order, Marilyn was able to turn off the barrier and along with it, she casted another light magic to blind their open eyes. It gave them enough time to run away with the crystals.
And now, here it was.
As the camera sweeps through the dark, damp dungeon. It followed through the glowing moss, casting eerie shadows on the rough walls. And with it, its live view caught action with the six students, Kenji, Jessica, Tony, Thors, Marilyn and Zelisha, as they sprinted down the narrow corridor, their footsteps echoing ominously.
“Keep running! Don’t look back!” said Kenji who was starting to tire himself out from how heavy the Crystals were.
“Shit, their catching up to us!” Said Jessica as she turned back to hear the wild calls of the Class-E group.
“Did you see those guys? They’re starting to look like they were raised by goblins!” said Kenji.
“The crystals are too heavy, their slowing us down.” said Zelisha.
“We need a plan, we can’t slow them down or fight them off! Its already clear that they are after the crystals.” said Jessica.
“We can’t just leave the crystals, it doesn’t make sense if we do.” said Kenji.
“I’m not saying that….wait, Tony, buff us with your magic!” said Jessica as she remembered Tony’s role in the group as a support mage.
Tony quickly nodded, but he couldn’t cast the magic with the bag of crystals on his hands, so he tossed them to Kenji’s arm.
“Oof! Oy! Tony, don’t toss it to me, toss it to them! My hands are completely full here!” said Kenji, arguably.
But not long after, Tony was able to cast magic on all of them. The magic he applied was a strength and speed enhancing spell.
As his magic started taking effect, so did their speed increased.
But that wasn’t enough, it only got them a few meters ahead, but the Class-E group was still on their tail.
“Their not giving up at all!!” said Kenji.
“There must be something else.” said Jessica
And as she contemplated, out by the distance, Zelisha was able ot notice something on the floor.
“Wait, is that what I think it is?”
And to her luck, what she found was a piece of resource growing in the side of dungeon. That resource was called the [Giggling Fungus].
But with Zelisha’s hands full, she had to ask for Jessica to assist her.
“Jessica, do you see that mushroom up ahead? Grab it!” she said.
“Got it!” and as they got close, Jessica was able to swiftly grab hold of the mushroom.
“Don’t breath it in, its very toxic.” said Zelisha.
“Okay, what am I supposed to do with this?” she asked.
“Ah…its pretty complicated, so here, lets exchange.” as they were running, Zelisha and Jessica were able to exchange what they were holding.
Jessica now carried the crystals while Zelisha had the fungus on hand.
And they continued to run even so.
“What are you planning to do with that?” asked Kenji.
“Something pretty funny.” said Zelisha.
Soon enough, Zelisha started doing something to the mushroom. Using her magic, she was able to configure the mushroom to some extent, but the others could barely tell what she was doing. All they saw was how impressive Zelisha was with how she was running but still was working on the mushroom like it was normal for her.
“O-okay…I’m finish.” said Zelisha as she had this nervous smile on her.
“What are you going to do with that?” asked Kenji who saw that the mushroom who wa once a normal looking mushroom was now glowing like a glowstick.
“Do you wanna hear a joke?” asked Zelisha.
“W-what? No! Are you serious right now?!” asked Kenji as he was pretty upset.
“I am, so Knock knock!” she said.
“W-what?!” asked Kenji in a rather upset and confused way.
“Fungus!”
“Fungus?!”
“Fungus bomb, you bitches!!” she said as she threw the glowing mushroom to the back.
But nothing happened.
For 1 second…
For 2 seconds..
But finally on the third second…
*BOOM!*
Like any bomb that was made, it exploded.
And from that explosion, a large blast of smoke started to envelop the back of the dungeon.
But soon after, the Class-E group were able to pass through.
“What!? it did nothing!” said Kenji who was surprised.
“Hold on, for 3…2…1…and go.”
And to her confidence, the entire group was starting to hear something other than the madness that came from Class-E.
“Ha…”
“haha…”
“hahahah!”
“Hahahahaha!!”
“hahahahahah!!”
Out of nowhere, the entire class-E group was laughing uncontrollably, and to their laughs, their pace started slowing down.
Not before long, the class-E was now entirely out of their sight.
As the group continued on moving further ahead. Far enough that they were assured a bit of rest, it gave the chance for everyone to thank Zelisha for her work.
“You did it!” said Marilyn.
“Nice job Zel.” said Jessica as she praised her friend.
“What was that?” asked Kenji who was surprised by the the work that Zelisha did.
“Like I said, fungus bomb. But more accurately, a [Giggle Fungus Bomb].” she said as she looked very proud of herself.
“Huh, so all of that explosion came from one mushroom?” he asked.
“Mushroom plus my mana. Its pretty hard to do, but once you know what to work on the mushroom, its pretty easy. Its one of the things I put on my arrows as ammunition, so I’m pretty used ot it by now.” she said.
“I never once saw you use it before though.” said Marilyn.
“I just never had the chance. Even now, I didn’t expect to use it on this event so I didn’t bring some with me, but luckily we did. And we were lucky enough to even find one on the side of the dungeon. Its not as common as the other resources, so we were pretty lucky this time.” she explained.
“How long does it last?” asked Jessica.
“The laughing stops after 15 minutes and the gas only last for about a minute.” she said.
“Okay, that’s good to know. Now after we rest for a minute, lets continue on.” said Jessica.
“Right!” said everyone.
After a while, the entire group was able to traverse the dungeon for fifteen more minutes, after that. They were finally able to see the light of day. AKA, the exit.
And to their surprise, they were the second to finish the event.
When they were curious as to who was the first to finish, they saw the cold gaze of Conner O’nniel standing by the side along with the other Class-B students.
“Damn, looks like Class-B got first place.” said Kenji as he looked a bit confident.
But all of a sudden, Ms. Sera came to greet them in their success. And she had news to tell.
“No, It wasn’t them who got first place.” she said.
“What? Then who did?”
When Kenji turned to the scoreboard, he was surprised to find that it was Class-D who got first place.
“Wha- how did that happen?!” he asked as he was very surprised.
“They got lucky.” she said.
“How do you mean?” asked Jessica.
“They got transported near the mini-boss room that was assigned to Class-B, and they took that chance to eliminate class-B’s boss room, making Class-B the first group to lose the event.”
“But that doesn’t really explain how they got first place though.” said Zelisha.
“Like I said, they got lucky…extremely lucky.” she repeated.
“After they defeated the B boss-room, on their way to find the crystals, they were lucky enough to find a crystal source with hardly any monsters nearby.” she said.
“Oh…I guess luck really is a skill then.” said Jessica as she was a bit taken aback by the results.
But now that they were done, this gave them the chance to rest and wait for Soril to come back out of the dungeon.
It was easy to tell when one group loses or completes the event, it can easily be monitored by the drone following the group around. Once a group wins, the drone will announce the winner and their place. So with that said, since there was a drone following Soril around, he must have heard about them winning the event.
Jessica could only assume that he was now making his way out of the dungeon. And having to make sure, she turned to the screen that was monitoring Soril’s position.
But as she looked, she was surprised to see that on the place of Soril’s monitor, she witnessed the sight of seven students standing against Soril on his own.
With their swords and weapons drawn, Jessica could only assume that an entire group was out against one student.
The entire Class-A group was found standing against Soril.
“Oh my, this is bad.” said Ms. Sera who found this situation to be quite shocking.
“They should have heard the news by now, so Soril should be free to go.” said Zelisha.
“Hey look, it seems like their talking to Soril.” said Kenji as he pointed out that Class-A was silently murmuring something but the drone could not pick up their voices.
[…Lets….do this everyone…get ready!] it was Jason’s voice that was heard. Although there was a bit of static, it can be seen that the entire Class-A group was about to eliminate Soril despite him and his group already winning the event.
The sound was cutting off…
Soon enough, so did the video.
The entire video with Soril and the Class-A group was now turned off for some unknown reason. And everyone nervously wondered.
And for Jessica, It left her afraid of the possibilities of what was happening in that moment.
AN: HOW DID YOU GUYS LIKE THIS CHAPTER? I HAD FUN WRITING IT.