- “You are so strong, darling. You have dealt with it with such an ease. Ten experience points for you and twenty for your party members.” – Lavita announced after I killed yet another Tarkee.


    “I guess that’s the last one here,” I said before checking if Tarkee I have killed dropped anything. Unfortunately, it didn’t.


    “Master Rockin, something is approaching us fast,” Ranalaiya informed me suddenly.


    “Something approaching us? Is it another Tarkee?” I asked.


    “No. From the sound it makes it doesn’t look that way,” Ranalaiya said, her ears tensing up to catch an additional sound. “It’s coming from over that direction.” She pointed towards the grass overgrown ground. It definitely wasn’t a Tarkee since we could see the grass moving to the sides but couldn’t see whatever was approaching us. In a short moment, a Halluspider jumped out of the grass, stopping right in front of me before releasing a scratching chirp.


    “Huh? That’s Sylfrin’s spiderling, Voras,” I recognized it right away.


    “What is it doing here?” Ranalaiya asked.


    “Maybe something has happened and Sylfrin sent Voras to get us?” Virghel speculated.


    “Ah, crap. Let’s go,” I exclaimed before rushing towards to where the rest of our party was.


    {in the meantime where the rest of our party was}


    “Shield Block! Bone Crusher!” Tarrion blocked an attack from a dragonkin he was fighting before swinging back at his opponent.


    - ‘Bam! Slam!’ –


    “Bhaaah!” The dragonkin was pushed away after Tarrion’s blow landed, the sound of the impact indicating that the dragonkin’s left arm’s bones were being broken as a result of it too. “You dry-skin… You’ll pay for this!” The dragonkin growled at Tarrion.


    “Frostbite! Frostbolt!” Sylfrin was fighting off another dragonkin as well.


    “Aargh! You, damn Frost Bat woman!” The dragonkin Sylfrin hit with her spells succumbed on one knee, leaning on his spear weapon to not fall down when his right leg became frostbitten.


    “Spark! Lightning Bolt!” Krisel cast her own spells on the third dragonkin.


    “Tss… was that supposed to hurt me?” The dragonkin scoffed, not looking to be hurt at all.


    “Twinstab!” Lilfira jumped at him in an attempt to stab him.


    “Lilfira, no!” Krisel cried out.


    - ‘Bang. Bang.’ – Lilfira’s twin attack was easily blocked by the dragonkin who simply raised the shield he had to defend himself.


    “Crescent Slash!” Lilfira followed up with another attack which was blocked as well, the dragonkin not even flinching despite Lilfira giving her all.


    “You half-breed are a disgrace to us red dragonkins! Letting you attempt the Rites of Strength would be the biggest humiliation to us! You will die here like one of the monsters inside this dungeon! Brutal Strike!” The dragonkin roared before swinging with his one handed axe at Lilfira.


    “Huh? Parry!” Lilfira exclaimed in fear. She was too close to the dragonkin to get away in time, so she tried parrying the dragonkin’s attack, but his attack was so strong, it broke Lilfira’s spear in half before cutting through her armor, inflicting a deep wound on the left side of her body just under her chest. “Aaah!” Lilfira cried out from pain after her body was blown away from the powerful strike, Lilfira falling on the ground about twenty feet away from where she was standing.


    “Nooo!” Sylfrin shouted, her face becoming painted in horror.


    “You fucking bastard! Haah! Shield Bash!” Tarrion jumped in, blowing away the dragonkin who wounded Lilfira before taking a defensive stance to stop the dragonkin from advancing. “Quickly, use a Healing Potion on her!”


    “Don’t let them heal her!” The dragonkin who was blown away by Tarrion ordered after picking himself up. Tarrion’s Shield Bash was strong enough to blow the dragonkin away, but it didn’t look like the dragonkin was injured by it.


    “Cough, humph,” the dragonkin who was hurt by Tarrion’s Bone Crusher swing gulped a Healing Potion of his own before rushing towards where Lilfira was lying.


    “Frost Spear!” Sylfrin cast another spell in the meantime.


    “Tch… Ghaaah!” The same dragonkin she attacked earlier was stopped in his tracks when Sylfrin’s Frost Spear stabbed him on the same leg from below.


    “No, you don’t!” Tarrion yelled out before turning to stop the dragonkin who has healed himself and was running towards Lilfira.


    “Where do you think you’re going? Spinning Tail Slam!” But Tarrion was stopped by the first dragonkin who was issuing orders.


    “Dhaah!” Tarrion raised his shield just in time to block, but the power of the attack swiped him off his feet, Tarrion falling on the ground as the result of it.


    “No, stop!” Krisel tried blocking the other dragonkin’s path with her own body.


    “Out of my way, weakling!” The dragonkin who was running to finish Lilfira off simply pushed Krisel away with his hand, easily throwing her away to the side. “Die, half-breed!” He then raised his spear, about to stab Lilfira to death.


    “Leap Jump! Shadow Claw!” But his attack was interrupted by Ranalaiya slicing at his arm with her claw weapons. The wound was so deep and Ranalaiya’s attack was so fierce that if not for the dragonkin’s armor, she probably would’ve cut his arm off.


    “Aaaah!” The dragonkin roared, gripping onto his right arm with his left one, dropping his spear as a result of it.


    “Shield!” I followed up with my attack skill, blowing the dragonkin away, the dragonkin falling on the ground, away from Lilfira.


    “What?” The dragonkin in charge exclaimed before turning to see what just happened.


    “Double Slash!” Virghel jumped at him from the side in an attempt to cut him down.


    “Humph,” but the dragonkin reacted in time, blocking her attack with his shield.


    “Huh? Hah,” Virghel didn’t take any risks and instead of attacking again, jumped back to a safe distance.


    “Lilfira!” Ranalaiya exclaimed, seeing her bleeding.


    “You, damn dry-skins!” The dragonkin in charge roared, looking enraged.


    “Heal her, quick!” I ordered before turning to the same dragonkin. “You will pay for this, lizardface!”


    “Tch, as if I am scared of you, dry-skin. You might be able to save her this time, but don’t think this is over. The half-breed won’t leave this dungeon alive and if any of you stand in our way, neither will you,” the dragonkin in charge spoke back to me, hinting to the other two dragonkins with his head they’ll be leaving. The outrageous thing was, all three of them simply turned their backs on us to leave, showing no concern we might attack them from behind.


    This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    “Tch…” I gritted my teeth, wanting to smash my shields at their skulls, but I refrained from doing so simple because saving Lilfira’s life was more important right now.


    “Krisel!” Tarrion rushed to check on Krisel the moment it was safe to do so.


    “I… I’m fine… Ouch,” Krisel said that, but it was obvious she was hurting. The blow from the dragonkin was strong enough and she must’ve had a couple of her ribs broken when he smacked her.


    “Here, drink the potion,” Tarrion offered her a Weak Healing Potion.


    “Thank you,” Krisel picked it up, drinking it right away.


    “Cough, cough,” Lilfira coughed out some blood.


    “Here, drink this, but slowly,” I offered her a Weak Healing Potion of my own. Ranalaiya used two of them just a moment ago in order to heal the wound on her side, but Lilfira was also bleeding internally. Not to mention, she had other bruises and injures from being blown away and falling hard on the ground. It took four Weak Healing Potions in total to finally help her feel almost fully healed. “Damn it.” I cursed even after letting out a sigh of relief to see Lilfira’s life was no longer in danger.


    “Master… Rockin…” Lilfira spoke up, her voice trembling.


    “Here, here. It’s ok. You’re fine now,” I said before hugging her.


    “I was… so scared. I thought I will…” Lilfira was sobbing.


    “Hey, you’re ok now. Don’t think about it,” I tried to calm her down.


    “Sorry, but… we need to move,” Tarrion informed me and I knew why.


    “Yes. Let’s find a safe place to spend the night,” I agreed. It wasn’t dark yet and it was yet to start becoming dark, but everyone understood our Tarkee hunt would have to be postponed for now.


    {after we had found a safe place}


    “How is she?” Tarrion asked, both of us sitting on the wide branch on a tree.


    We walked for maybe an hour away from where the fight with the dragonkins ensued, finding a slightly more overgrown area with bigger trees, climbing up as high as the branches allowed us to do so before setting up a camp for the night. By the time we hung the hammocks up, it became dark. Instead of starting the fire and cooking some meat for dinner, we ate some ready-made food that Savirei had prepared for us, with the women going to sleep earlier while the two of us stayed up to talk things out. In truth, Lilfira was shaken by what had happened and the rest of the women stayed with her to help her calm down.


    “She’s fine. Well, considering,” I said, making a frown.


    “Sorry, Furball. It was my fault,” Tarrion apologized.


    “No, it wasn’t,” I said, knowing I shouldn’t blame him for Lilfira getting injured. “If it wasn’t for you, Lilfira might’ve been killed for sure. Besides, Sylfrin said it was your idea to send her pet Voras to us. That was really smart. If it wasn’t for you, we might’ve not been able come back in time. So, thanks.”


    “Right. Ok,” Tarrion said, taking a deep breath in and then letting out a sigh. “I don’t think it will be safe for us to stay here and hunt Tarkees. Those dragonkins made it clear they don’t want Lilfira to live.”


    “Yeah. Even if we manage to defend ourselves against them, we won’t be able to farm experience the way we did up till now,” I shared my thoughts on it as well.


    “What do you suggest?” Tarrion asked.


    “Humph,” I grunted before touching my chin to think about something. “How about we go to the lower floor of the dungeon?”


    “Lower floor? We could, but the dragonkins could follow us there as well. They are definitely strong enough to take on Goblies,” Tarrion said.


    “No, I meant, going directly to the eighth floor,” I said.


    “What?” Tarrion gasped, giving me a cringe look.


    “Why not? We were planning to go to the eighth floor of the dungeon from the very beginning, weren’t we? Besides, those dragonkins think we are weaklings, so they wouldn’t expect us to go deeper into the dungeon and those Stone Golems would give more experience points too,” I reasoned.


    “Yes, but we spoke that maybe we would go down to the eighth floor of the dungeon. Besides, half of our party is too weak to fight Goblies, so fighting Stone Golems will be even more difficult,” Tarrion shared his concern and it was a valid concern, really.


    “Yes, I know. However, if we stay on this floor, we risk those dragonkins finding us again and there could be more than three of them that would show up next time. I say fighting Stone Golems would be less dangerous no matter how you look at it,” I shared what I thought about it from my own perspective.


    “Ghm… Yes, ok,” Tarrion finally agreed. I knew he wasn’t happy about it, but Tarrion also knew those dragonkins finding us again might end up worse. I could bet he was worried about Krisel too. “I’ll lead the way tomorrow.” He then said.


    “That’s fine. I would’ve asked you to anyway,” I said, adding a smirk.


    “One more thing I forgot to tell you about the eighth floor,” Tarrion said.


    “Forgot? What’s that?” I asked him, trying to guess in my head what could it be.


    “There are no trees growing on the eighth floor of the dungeon,” he told me.


    “Oh,” I quietly gasped, realizing what that meant. “Yeah, ok.” I shrugged.


    “Humph. We’ll figure something out when we get there. Right now we better get some good rest. We’ll be moving out early tomorrow,” Tarrion added before standing up to go lay down to get some sleep.


    “Agree,” I said, following his example.


    We moved out very early in the morning, but instead of killing every Tarkee we came across, we tried to be stealthy and avoid unnecessary fights. Leaving as many Tarkees as we could alive was helpful in a way that anyone going after us would have to fight them. Also, monsters roaming around would be a clear sign nobody had been in that area for a while, confusing the dragonkins that we haven’t passed that way. Unfortunately, we had to keep a slow pace, so reaching the entrance that led to the seventh floor of the dungeon took some time. The only good thing was, as little Tarkees as we had killed, we had still received enough experience points for Lilfira and I to receive one more Level Up offer each, with me leaving the party temporarily, but us not stopping in the meantime.


    Since Lilfira lacked Stamina, and with her chest armor being broken, I suggested Lilfira to add four points to her Stamina stat this time, with the remaining two out of the six stat points she had received to be put into her Strength and Magic Energy one each. As for Lilfira herself, she looked to be fine. I had been in some life or death situations myself in the past, so I know how scary it can be. Lilfira was smiling and looked to be determined to keep going. The incident probably strengthened her resolve to pass the Rites of Strength in order to show all those dragonkins and her father she is stronger than they think.


    We have successfully reached the seventh floor of the dungeon without being found by the red dragonkins. At first, Tarrion’s fear was that the dragonkins might guard the entrance to the seventh floor, expecting for us to show up, but it turned out I was right about them thinking we were weaklings and wouldn’t dare to go deeper into the dungeon. Still, that didn’t mean we could drop our guard down after reaching the seventh floor of the dungeon. Quite the opposite, fighting Goblies was much more difficult than fighting Tarkees. One reason was, there was no sneaking past Goblies. They were able to sniff us out, and once they did, they’d alert the other nearby Goblies with their howls, us needing to fight groups of three, four or sometimes five Goblies before moving on.


    Goblies were fierce monsters, but thankfully they couldn’t climb trees. They had heads that resembled hyena’s head, but their bodies were part animal and part human, and they walked on two legs. Worse yet, they also wore some scrawny leather scraps that could’ve been considered armor and carried weapons that resembled knifes or short swords. In addition, they could lose their weapons, drop on all fours and fight us just like any wild animal would, trying to bite us or rip us to shreds with their sharp claws.


    Since Ranalaiya, Sylfrin and I had been to the seventh floor of the dungeon to hunt down Goblies before, we took charge of the fights for the most part. We’d sometimes let Lilfira try to fight one Goblie, but not by herself. Tarrion would use his Provoke skill to attract the Goblie’s attention, Krisel would boost Virghel’s and Lilfira’s stats, with the two of them fighting it until they took it down. Virghel was level twelve and she was clearly stronger than Lilfira, but it was the first time for Virghel to fight Goblies too, so we took the safe approach. Good thing was, our group was working very well together and we were making good progress, even if it was a slow progress. The downside was, neither I, nor Tarrion knew exactly were the entrance to the eighth floor of the dungeon was, so we used the old, reliable method to find it, we stuck to the dungeon’s wall while going forward.


    We have found the entrance to the eighth floor eventually, but it basically took us all day. We must’ve turned the wrong way after entering the seventh floor, because in my mind we would’ve reached the entrance sooner if we stuck to the dungeon wall while going the opposite way. That was to be confirmed of course. I simply wanted to believe it in my mind for the most part.


    Since the evening was approaching, Tarrion suggested that we better spend the night on the seventh floor, because as he informed me earlier, there were no trees growing on the eighth floor, so we wouldn’t be able to use our hammocks to spend the night safely there. The seventh floor of the dungeon resembled a savannah in a way. It was dry and sometimes rocky, with plenty of bushes around and some trees too. The trees weren’t as big or as wide as they were on the lower floors of the dungeon, but we still managed to find a decent one where we could spend the night on. We ended up setting up a camp about one hour’s walk from the entrance to the eighth floor, give or take.


    All things considered, our day was rather productive as well. We had killed quite a decent number of Goblies, racking up on the experience points that we came here for. This time, it was Krisel and I who have received Level Up offers, me doing my usual thing before declining it and making Lavita upset once again. If we didn’t have to be careful and would’ve hunted Goblies seriously, we would’ve definitely collected enough experience points for someone else to level up as well, but it couldn’t be helped. We needed to be careful even if the red dragonkins attacked Lilfira earlier never considered going to the seventh floor themselves. Again, I didn’t start the fire due to us being not that far from the next floor’s entrance. We did not want to attract anyone’s attention, whoever they might’ve been. We went to sleep early as well, knowing tomorrow we would have to fight harder than ever before.