[Vol 3] Side Story 2: The Underground Dungeon

“Power Up! Speed Up!” While Anya is trying to fend off three goblins on its own, Lou desperately casted enchantment magic on it. They are currently surrounded by three dungeon goblins, with a wall at their back. They have nowhere to run, they have no other option but to fight!

After hearing that she could gain amazing power upon reaching the deepest part of the dungeon, Lou just couldn’t sit around anymore. One week after that, she sneaked out of the academy and entered the dungeon without anyone knowing.

She was naïve enough to think she could avoid the monster’s detection all the way until the end, but only a few minutes after she entered the dungeon, she was discovered by the three goblins in question.

All of a sudden, the goblin at the flank suddenly charged in. The goblins are not stupid either, they know that the weak link of summoning magic is the summoner themselves. As long as they can take out the summoner, the familiar will be freed from their control.

Therefore, they ignored the weak-looking butterfly and went directly for the summoner, they didn’t think a butterfly would pose any serious threat for them. But little did they know…… the little butterfly which they looked down upon easily decapitated the goblin with wind cutter.

Although Lou and Anya might be considered the weakest in the academy, one must know that Mysteria Academy can stand toe-to-toe with the best magic academy in the world, the Tristanian Magic Academy. It is one of the most elite magic academy in the world, in other words, every student there is a genius in their own rights.

By no means are Lou and Anya weak, something as puny as a goblin doesn’t even stand a chance against them. But due to her inferiority complex and her position in the academy, Lou had lost her confidence, she never thought she would beat a goblin as easy as this, so this came as a surprise to her.

Seeing one of their comrade was downed so easily by the weak-looking butterfly, the other two goblins become more vigilant. Both of the goblins charged in at the same time, their target, the summoner!

Anya tried to take both of them down at once with wind cutter, but it was intercepted by one of the goblin. It served as a meat shield to protect its comrade, allowing it to get closer to the summoner to finish her off.

The other goblin went past Anya and directly charged towards Lou, Anya was hesitant to use wind cutter since Lou was directly in front of the goblin. If the goblin side-stepped and avoided the attack, there is a high chance that Lou will be the one receiving the attack.

When Lou saw that the goblin was getting closer and closer, she started to panic. She keeps casting fireball, but all of them missed the target. If she wasn’t so timid and aimed properly, a single fireball would have been enough.

The corner of the goblin’s lips curved up, it was already within the attack range, it jumped towards Lou to build up momentum while raising the club in its brawny hands high up into the sky.

“Kya~!! Fireball! Fireball!! Fireball!!!” Seeing this, Lou couldn’t help but panic even more, she fell onto the ground and pointed her staff directly at the goblin, she shuts her eyes tightly while casting several round of fireballs at the goblin.

………

“Kii! Kiii! Kiiii-!” Anya shouted frantically to grab Lou’s attention. Hearing Anya’s voice, Lou gradually calmed down and opened her eyes. What she saw before her was a scorching black charcoal, the goblin who had directly received several round of fireballs had been completely scorched to the core, it was completely overkill!

Lou was honestly surprised, she couldn’t believe what she saw, she got up and walked unsteadily towards the black charcoal. The moment she touched it, with as much as a light touch, the black charcoal instantly disintegrated into ash.

“I don’t…… believe it. Did I actually become stronger?” Lou was convinced that she had become stronger ever since coming to this dungeon, but that was not actually the case. She firmly believed that she will get even stronger if she can make it to the depths of the dungeon. With that mindset, she keeps going deeper and deeper into the dungeon enthusiastically. Every time she beat a more powerful foe, she regained more of her confidence. It lasted until they reach the third floor.

They ran into the floormaster, it was impossible to defeat a floormaster without being in a party of six A-rankers. Floormaster is said to be one of the strongest monster in the dungeon, regardless of the floor level. The correct choice when encountering a floormaster would be to run away as fast as possible. However, due to her budding confidence, Lou challenged the floormaster, thinking that she could actually win.

Needless to say, Anya wasn’t able to put a single dent on the floormaster, and was downed in a single strike. This scenario make Lou recall the mock battle with Raymond one week ago. Her confidence immediately crumbled right at that moment, she tried to rush to Anya’s side, only to be welcomed by the floormaster’s ferocious claw.

In the face of the floormaster’s ferocious claw, Lou seemed so small, she was completely frozen stiff by the floormaster’s intimidating aura. Everything around her turned completely dark, she could only see the claw that is getting bigger and closer to her. She could easily imagine herself turning into mincemeat after receiving an attack like this. She shuts her eyes and braced for the impact.

“Bang!” Lou was smashed by the claw and sent flying towards the wall, or that was what she expected would happen, but the impact that she was bracing for…… didn’t come.

Lou opened her eyes timidly, what she saw before her was the back figure of a male student with short brown hair, she recognized the figure at a single glance, she couldn’t help but mutter, “B-brother Owen?! Why are you here?”

That’s right, the one who had rescued her and stopped the floormaster’s attack was Owen, the bodyguard of the strongest summoner in Mysteria Academy. That means… Lou looked around frantically, but couldn’t find what she was looking for.

Someone suddenly grabbed Lou’s hand from behind, and pulled her away from here. Lou was surprised, but when she saw the back figure of the girl with light brown hair, she instantly calmed down. That was Anne, it was only natural for her to be here if Owen was here, he would never leave Anne’s side no matter what.

“Owen! Try to distract the floormaster for a while longer. Grea! Go grab Anya’s familiar! We’re getting out of here!” While running, Anne issued commands to Owen and Grea.

“Ouh!!” Owen let out a battle howl to acknowledge the command.
“Yes, Master!” Grea answered respectfully before she flew off.

Grea was Anne’s familiar, she was a dragonkin, a demi-human with dragon blood flowing within her, the familiar of the highest class. She had a shoulder-length purple hair, which was very uncommon even in the world of Halkeginia. There were two curved horns growing from the side of her head, she had a pair of leather wing, and a draconic tail extended from her tail bone.

Scales suddenly emerged on her right hand, and before long, her right hand had been dragonized. She transformed her right hand into dragon claw in anticipation of a battle.

While Owen was distracting the floormaster, Grea tried to save Anya, Anne on the other hand was dragging Lou to a safe zone.

“Bang! Bang! Boom!”

Despite all the huge rumble, Anne keeps running without even looking back, that was not because she didn’t care about her comrade, but because she believed in them. Lou couldn’t help but turn her head around to look anxiously, she could only see the figure of the floormaster getting smaller as they get further away.

Upon arriving at a safe zone, Anne pushed Lou in front of her. Lou didn’t know what to say, she could only mutter a few words, “U-um… Sis Anne… I…”

“Slap!” Anne slapped Lou before she could finish her words, tears started rolling down her cheeks, then she got down on her knees and embraced Lou before she shouted, “You idiot! Don’t ever do that again! Do you know how worried I was when you were missing?!”

Lou felt honestly guilty, she never thought her rash action would cause troubles for so many people, and put them in danger, she apologized sincerely, “Sis Anne… I’m sorry… I’m so sorry… Uwaaa… Uwaaa…! Lou suddenly cried out loud after apologizing.

“Mou… You’re such a crybaby…” Anne patted her head gently to calm her down. Before long, they could hear a weak voice, “H… lp… He-lp!

Anne suddenly released Lou from her embrace, and said, “Did you hear something?”

“Sniffs… Sniffs… Mm… I think it’s coming from there…” Lou wiped her tears and pointed towards the location where the voice was coming from.

“Let’s go take a look.” Anne took the lead and walked towards that direction. When they arrived at the origin of the voice, what they saw was… a Demon! Under a pile of rocks!

The female demon laughed awkwardly, and said, “Ah… Hahaha… Humans… Do you think you can lend me a hand?”

“You vile demon! Be prepared to-!”Before Anne could finish her sentence, the female demon suddenly shouted frantically, “W-wait! Wait-wait-wait! I mean no harm! I come in peace!”

“You think I can believe the words of a demon like you? Vanquish under my strongest spell-!” Just when Anne was trying to cast her most powerful spell to vanquish the demon, she was stopped by Lou’s voice, “Sis Anne!”

Lou pulled the hem of Anne’s shirt, and looked at her with the puppy eyes. When Anne looked over and saw that glittering eyes, she immediately knew what she wants. Anne strengthened her resolves, and said, “No-! We can’t let this demon live! They tried to take over the world a few decades ago!”

“But… She seems so pitiful, we have to help her!” Lou continued to assault Anne with that glittering big eyes of hers. However, Anne still didn’t break down, and tried to explain as logically as possible, “Lou, listen to me. Demons are evil, they cannot be trusted, they will take advantage of the hole in your heart and manipulate you in the shadows. We cannot let her live, now that we found her.”

“W-wait! I mean no harm to the humans, promise! ……I know! I’ll give you this stone! It is what you’re coming for in the first place right? I found it in the depths of the dungeon!” The female demon suddenly pulled out a mini-sized amethyst stone while pleading for her life.

“Hoh… That’s the treasure that is said to be able to grant one an amazing power? Then I’ll take it after I kill you!” Anne was dead set on killing the demon no matter what.

“Wa…! You humans are evil! Evil-evil-evil!” The female demon shouted while struggling to get free. Right now, Anne has a really wicked expression on her face, it is hard to tell who is the real demon anymore.

Suddenly, Lou jumped in front of Anne, with both arms extended. Then she exclaimed, “If that’s the case, then I’ll make her my familiar!”

Anne was dumbfounded, and momentarily don’t know what to say, “Wa…? What are you…?”

Before Anne could react, Lou immediately chanted the familiar sealing aria, “O the Overgod of Fate, I ask of thy blessing and bound myself with the lost soul before me.” After that, she kissed the female demon and their contract was thus finalized.

Lou turned around, and said triumphantly, “Now that she’s my familiar, she won’t be able to anything bad anymore. Now you have no more reason to kill her right, sis Anne?”

……

Somewhere in the depths of the dungeon, someone was watching this entire scene from a crystal ball, “Fufufu… Stage One complete! I will definitely fulfill your wish and set you free from the dungeons, Lord Logia.”