Chapter 14- Escaping the Dungeon

Chapter 14- Escaping the Dungeon

"Julie, stay back!"

It's dangerous here. She should run while she still has the chance.

"Wind Magic!" Instead she propelled herself forward with her signature wind magic, coming over to me.

"No. I told you to stay back."

She placed a hand on my face and applied pressure to my leg with her other hand. "That smokescreen was stupid, Elsa."

Even though she's scolding me her voice is so gentle and her smile warms my soul. "Ah, you knew that was me?"

She nodded. "Just look at yourself. Have you even checked your HP? I bet it's low."

"That's right." She can't see my stats because I'm hiding them, but my HP is only around 30%.

"Here, I have a potion." Julie pulled out a vial. It contained a gold liquid. "Here, take this."

"Is that a Full Recovery? Where did you even get it from?" If this is what I think it is then it'd cost a lot within the in-game market and be hard to come across while adventuring.

"I brought it."

"With real money?"

"Yes, now take it."

"I can't accept that. You spent real cash on it. This-"

She had removed the cork and poured the liquid in my mouth. I almost choked on it, but the effects were immediate. I found the soreness and pain in my body had gone away almost instantaneously. I felt refreshed, my stats all restored. The power of this item was to fully restore HP, MP, and SP as well as healing any wounds. If wounds were left unhealed I'd simply bleed out after taking it.

"Thank you." I decided to be grateful instead of protesting that she just wasted her money on me. On the contrary it's not a big waste, with my MP restored I have access to all my most powerful skills which aren't in cool downs. I may be able to defeat the Elder Basilisk if I play this right. My level is still too low for a full on frontal assault, but there are other ways to win.

The Elder Basilisk is toying with my pet. It has the size advantage and arms. It can hold my serpent so that the serpent's flame breath misses. It will slam my serpent against the walls, shaking the whole chamber. It even dares to bite into my serpent.

Enough is enough. I want to rip that basilisk apart right now. "Julie, I'm going to take it down."

"No, we should run while they're fighting." She grabs my hand, attempting to pull me away.

"If we combine our power we'd be able to defeat it. I know we will."

"What skill can defeat that?" She asked.

Touch of Death would work, with my MP fully restored I'd be able to kill it if I could touch it.

"I just need to get close. Can you do that for me?"

"Yeah, but what are you going to do?"

"Julie! Now!" I had no more time for hesitation, I needed to stop the Elder Basilisk before it killed my serpent.

Technically speaking the serpent was undead, but that didn't mean it was immortal.

Julie ran behind me, placing her hands on my back and pushing me forward. I could feel a cold gust of wind rocketing me upward, toward the head of the Elder Basilisk.

"Die!"

It opened its mouth, I stared down its throat. Green mist spat out from the monster's mouth. It must be an attack of some kind, maybe causing a status effect. This wasn't good, I was in mid-air. I couldn't turn or block it.

"Elsa! Hold on!" Julie held an arm out toward me. "Light Shield!"

A ball of light magic surrounded me. With this around me I was able to pass through the green mist without being affected. I fell on top of the Elder Basilisk's head. The light magic shield broke apart, the monster roared and swung its head wildly in an attempt to shake mè off.

I didn't need to stay on, I just needed to touch it once with my hand. "Touch of Death." I whispered.

The creature's eyes went wide before it collapsed, it fell. I drained all my MP and dipped into SP to use that move, my body locked up and I couldn't move. I was falling, but Julie flew up to grab me in her arms.

"I've got you."

"Julie… thank you…"

It felt nice to be carried like a princess by her, the most beautiful spirit.

"What skill was that?"

"Touch of Death. It doesn't have a guaranteed chance of working. We got lucky."

"I see."

There was no point in lying to her about what my skill was.

When Julie landed on the ground I was still unable to move. She sat down and lowered my head into her lap. "Wh-what are you doing?"

"You need to rest and it won't be good for you to place your head on the dungeon floor."

Yeah, but this is exactly what I wanted. You shouldn't spoil me like this.

My undead serpent had finally managed to wiggle itself out of the cold hands of the dead Elder Basilisk. It looked at us, Julie glared back at it. The serpent turned away and left. Of course it wasn't actually going anywhere. It was simply going around the corner to hide itself. I didn't yet have the strength to throw it in storage.

"Why do you think it did that?" Julie asked.

"What do you mean?"

"It didn't attack us."

"It has better things to do."

"I suppose for now you're right." She continued to stare in the direction the serpent left. I think she was being vigilant in case it came back.

Around ten minutes later the corpse of the Elder Basilisk broke apart. The corpses and blood spilled from the other basilisk were already gone. Now any remeanent of our fight was no more. I was finally able to move, my SP had recovered naturally by a bit and the same went for my MP.

I didn't want to get up from her lap, but I did. I helped Julie to her feet and we both turned to look at the iron door the dungeon boss had been guarding.

"I doubt that there would be any traps in there." I said. "We did just defeat a dungeon boss after all."

"In that case we should claim our reward."

It was decided. We headed toward the treasure room. I melted the door down with flame magic, stepping inside followed by Julie. This treasure room was more like a closet than a room. There was one chest and it had no lock.

I looked around at my surroundings, but saw no traps. I carefully kneeled down and opened the chest, golden light momentarily blinding me.

Once the light faded I was able to make out the contents of the chest. Inside were a matching set of rapiers and two near identical dresses. The only difference was the color. One dress was purple while the other blue. One rapier had a purple tint to it and the other a blue tint.

I looked back at Julie. "Do you want to split this between us?"

"Sure. It'll be nice to match with you."

I touch the purple dress and think hard about equipping it. By doing so it replaces the outfit I am wearing. My old outfit was torn, soaked in blood, and had lost its buffs. This new one was fresh and clean and came with buffs.

The dress wasn't really a dress. It was more akin to dress battle armor, thin and easy to move around while having a mostly purple design of different shades along with some blue. It had metallic shoulder armor, but not much.

As for buffs it came with a 5% attack increase, 3% resistance increase, and a 2% SP reduction which meant I'd burn through my SP 2% slower.

The name of the outfit was "Combat Dress (Purple)". I don't think there were any differences with the one Julie got, except for the color primarily being blue.

The rapiers were nothing special, just customized for a certain color. They didn't even come with sheaths.

Julie had switched into her new dress. The old dress she wore was designed with a more sophisticated feel in mind, she looked great in both, but now we matched. It made me feel like now we were a couple, wearing the same thing and everything.

"Do you like it?" She asked, spinning around so I could see all angles.

"Yeah, I do." Honestly, what's not to like?

"What do you want to do now?" She asked.

"Escape." I replied.

"Do you know the way out?"

"We could always use Teleportation."

"I don't have that skill." She admitted.

My MP is not high enough to teleport. I could go to my Sky Fortress since it cost 0 MP, but I can't bring Julie there.

Suddenly the world around me changed. We were no longer in the dungeon, but standing outside it. "What the?"

"You can teleport?" Julie asked me.

I nod. I'm so confused right now because I know it wasn't me who teleported us out of there. How the hell did we get outside the dungeon? Was it some kind of reward for beating the boss? Well it's not like we cleared the dungeon, we only managed to defeat 1 low level boss.

"Thank you very much."

"You're welcome, Julie."

"We should go on more adventures in the future, maybe go on a quest next time."

"Yeah, that sounds like a good plan."

I wave at her as she walked away, heading into the capital city. I watch her leave and look around to make sure no one else is around.

Grady and Sam must've left, I have no idea if they went back in the dungeon or went somewhere else.

With no one else in sight I teleport back to my Sky Fortress. I appear in my empty throne room, sitting down on my throne as my draconic features reappear.

It was only at that moment that I noticed the hitchhiker. A spider had crawled up on my dress, I shook it off and stomped on it, killing it for experience points.

"That was simply cruel."

My body froze at the sudden feminine voice. I hadn't noticed anyone had appeared in front of me. They made no movements, their breathing and heartbeat were silent. The fact there was an intruder in my Sky Fortress was itself cause for concern.

This woman was not human. She had six eyes, skin chalk white, was abnormally tall, and had four human sized spider limbs protruding from her back. It honestly grossed me out, especially when the limbs moved. She wore a white kimono and had long black hair.

"Did you have to kill one of my children?" She asked me.

She gracefully raised an arm, pointing a finger at me. Afterward lowering her arm. When I tried to move I felt something wet trickle down my body. When I looked down at my body I could see my blood spilling out. I hadn't noticed before, but my blood made it visible that I had been binded with very thin and lightweight razor sharp thread. She had restrained me without me even realizing it.

"Elsa, Dragon Princess, I've been watching you. I have something important to discuss with you."

Author's Note

I've been busy so I haven't been able to update as much as I wanted.