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Chapter 22.2

  With the combat over, Alicia decided to leave the water and check on Roxy. Although pretty tired, Tabitha had thankfully avoided doing any real damage. Alicia extended a hand, which Roxy grabbed eagerly, a smile returning to her face.

  “Thanks, Alicia. I really appreciate it. I assume Tab wasn’t this rough with you?”

  “Not quite, no. For the record, I think she’s being too tough on you. Since we’ve got some downtime, though, care to talk a walk with me? I need to water some plants and check on some personal projects, then maybe we can do some friendlier sparring of our own later!”

  “That sounds pretty nice, actually.” Roxy gestured for Alicia to lead the way, then began to follow. “I’ve never had much of a green thumb, myself. It’ll be cool to see what a Dryad can do!”

  Together, they spent a few hours wandering the neighborhood. Alicia was eager to offset Tabitha’s negativity, and she did her best to get to know Roxy, who seemed just as curious about her. Roxy had tons of questions about Alicia’s plants, her various terraforming projects, her Change, as well as her Race. After all of the chores were done, they returned home to engage in some friendly sparring of their own.

  Alicia did her best to learn from Roxy, to hear what her specialties were and see what she could fit into her own fighting style. She didn’t learn as much as she did from Tabitha, but she also wasn’t trying as hard. Her own fatigue had yet to vanish entirely, and she wanted to save strength for the Dungeon.

  Eventually, as the sun sank closer and closer to the horizon, Alicia started watching the front door of her house. As nice as it had been getting to know Roxy, she desperately missed Kat, especially since they hadn’t gotten to cuddle last night.

  The four of them, Roxy, Tab, Elias, and Alicia, were all gathered around the water when the door finally opened. Kat had barely taken a dozen steps before Alicia closed the distance and leapt into her arms. Laughter overtook them as they spun around, showering each other with kisses and affectionate nuzzles. Once they finally calmed down, they eagerly held each other’s hands and returned to the group.

  “—and after we checked on all my plants we did some sparring of our own! But don’t worry, it was mostly just practicing forms, I didn’t actually do any fighting. I’m more than ready to tackle the Dungeon again!” Alicia said, talking a mile a minute.

  “What’s your HP at?” Kat asked softly.

  “I’m at… 74%. Not perfect, but considering the state I was in yesterday, I’d say that’s pretty fantastic. What about you? How’s your MP looking?”

  “Not as spectacular, sadly. Only 43%, and that’s after I spent a chunk of last night with Alouette.” Kat looked over at Tab, who was kneeling next to Elias as he leaned against the edge of the pond. “What do you think? What should our plan be?”

  Tabitha spoke up first. “Well, not only is your mana a little low, but we also have our unexpected fourth delver. Not only do we need to build trust with her, but we’ll also need to spend some time learning how to fight as a group.”

  “I’m right here, you know,” Roxy muttered, staring at the ground.

  After a quick, cold glare, Tab continued. “I propose we take it easy tonight. We still head into the Dungeon, but we purposely stay close to the exit and try to find some monsters. The only real threat was the mini boss, but that’s already been taken care of. If we get into a small scrape or two, we can pull together more loot, more experience, and start to figure out party strategies.”

  Kat nodded slowly. “I really like the sound of that. That still helps us in the long term, but it also gives me and Alicia more time to recover. I won’t use any magic unless absolutely necessary.”

  With a sigh, Tab looked over at Roxy again. “How’s that sound?”

  Roxy nodded eagerly. “I know I made a bad first impression, but I want to show you all that I’m serious about this. Obviously, that means I’m just as committed to you all staying happy and healthy.”

  With everyone in agreement, they took the next half hour to gear up. They gave Roxy her equipment back, and Tabitha watched carefully as Roxy put everything on. Alicia didn’t see anything strange as Roxy suited up, and Tab’s lack of barbed comments seemed to indicate she was pleased with what she saw. After a quick goodbye to Elias, they began their march to the Key Dungeon.

  “So, my Class is built to hide from monsters and such,” Roxy started. “Once we spot some, it would be best for me to sneak away. Is that okay with everyone?”

  “Alright, look,” Tab said, stepping in front of Roxy. “I don’t trust you. I’m poking and prodding because I think you’re hiding something, but all that vanishes once we’re in the Dungeon. Inside, we’re a team, plain and simple. We’ve all seen firsthand how quickly a monster can overwhelm us, and it’s stupid to handicap ourselves because of unproven suspicions. If you ask me to jump, I’m jumping. If you need an opening, I’m making one for you. That means I expect the same from you, okay?”

  “Yes Ma’am!” Roxy said. Her infectious smile had returned, and she playfully saluted as she spoke.

  Tab rolled her eyes, then turned back towards the Dungeon. After another few minutes of walking, Alicia took the lead and pulled down the protective barrier. The party filed inside, took formation, and started into the Dungeon.

  Last time, the entry tunnel had felt massive and foreboding, but Alicia felt much more comfortable now that she’d been much deeper in the Dungeon. She knew the tunnel started as a sleek, stone hallway, and slowly gave way to artificial forest. As they drew closer to the first large chamber, she reinforced her staff, double checked her armor, and made another round to check that everyone still had vine bracelets to help her summon barriers for them. Content they were ready, Alicia braced herself for combat.

  The first chamber was empty, which wasn’t entirely surprising. She knew that the monsters were always moving around, and did her best to listen to the Dungeon plants for any possible warning signs.

  One advantage of a clear chamber was a chance to explore. On their first excursion, they’d simply walked straight through this chamber, but now they took their time wandering around. They looked in branches and under roots for possible secrets, even finding small piles of coins on several occasions. They also found side entrances to other chambers, both slightly smaller than ones they’d encountered previously. Just like their previous trip, there were small clearings between all the chambers that held entrances to multiple different paths.

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  Alicia did her best to stay focused on the plants and the Dungeon, but she occasionally looked behind to check on the party. As far as she could tell, Roxy was taking this very seriously; every time Alicia checked, Roxy was furiously scanning the Dungeon for signs of trouble, her hands holding her swords tightly.

  They were in the middle of their third chamber when trouble found them. Alicia had been so focused on looking for some kind of animal that she failed to notice the off-color patch of fungus. The moment she stepped close, wispy mycelium threads shot out and wrapped around her leg. They latched onto her armor, quickly attempting to burrow into it, and some of the smaller tendrils found her skin. Where they made contact, a stinging sensation appeared, causing Alicia to yelp in pain.

  The party sprang into action immediately. Tab was by her side in less than a second, her blade slashing through the threads. Roxy crouched low to the ground and began circling around, looking for off angles, while Kat grabbed Alicia’s shoulder to help pull her away.

  Gritting her teeth, Alicia grew additional layers of bark from her skin, effectively removing all lingering traces of the strange, shocking tendrils.

  Thank goodness I’m a Dryad. If I couldn’t shed my skin so easily, this would have been a lot worse.

  “There’s four of them!” Roxy shouted. “The mushrooms are just what we can see, I think there are corpses underneath the ground!”

  “The tendrils shock if they touch you, and it can linger! Don’t let them get close!” Alicia shouted.

  As soon as the words left her mouth, Tabitha put more space between herself and the strange fungal patches. The edges of her blades began to blur, and dozens of mushrooms covering the forest floor began shredding apart. Roxy joined in as well, jumping in when she found an opening in Tabitha’s attacks.

  It only took a few minutes for Roxy’s prediction to come true; the fungal patches started rising off the ground. Underneath them were sallow, heavily rotted corpses that overflowed with thick mushroom plating. Reminded of the zombie that she’d fought with Kat, Alicia tried to limit their movement. Walls of Thorns sprang from the ground in dozens of places, but she kept them incredibly short, no more than a foot at their tallest.

  Within seconds of the walls appearing, one of the corpses attempted to charge Kat. Thankfully, just as Alicia hoped, her thorns dug into its skin, exposing more fungal insides. The next step landed on an explosive piece of fruit, and she cheered in excitement as thick, barbed seeds launched into the zombie. Kat jumped forward, armed with her own sword, and slashed at the zombie’s neck. With its feet snagged on the jagged thorns, it was unable to move as Kat did her best to destroy it. Her actions were nowhere near as fast or as deadly as Tabitha’s, but every attack helped, especially since Alicia had prevented the zombies from moving closer.

  Taking a step back, Alicia watched as Tab and Roxy each finished off a zombie of their own. What concerned Alicia, however, was that the corpses weren’t vanishing with puffs of smoke the way all the other monsters had.

  “The corpses aren’t vanishing, something’s up!” she shouted.

  Just then, Kat drove her sword through her target’s neck, completely decapitating it. The body fell to the ground, suspended in Alicia’s Wall of Thorns, and they all turned to look at the last zombie. With the patch of thorns separating them, Tabitha was the only one able to keep attacking. Her sword continued to blur as she swung it, phantom cuts appearing on the zombie as it stepped forward. Rather than bumbling into her thorns, however, this monster stepped on the back of its fallen comrades.

  As its foot landed, all the mushrooms and mycelium from the zombie underneath it began to move. It crawled higher, shifting in horribly unnatural patterns before burrowing into the skin of the last remaining zombie. It took a second step, this time towards Tabitha, and repeated its strange assimilation process with the second corpse.

  The more fungus is absorbed, the bigger it grew. Despite Tabitha’s furious attacks, it managed to cross the Wall of Thorns within seconds, and now stood at twice its original height. The corpse was suspended in a veritable suit of decaying fungus, its body groaning as it raised its hand. With another step, it angled towards Alicia and tried to strike her. Despite its size, it moved surprisingly fast, and Alicia barely managed to get out of the way.

  Where the monster’s fist struck the ground, a small wave of mushrooms and mycelium appeared, slowly creating a large ring. As the ring crept closer, Kat returned to Alicia’s side to help her up, and both of them quickly ran back to make more space for Tabitha.

  “Tab!” Roxy shouted. “Draw it to your right! Alicia, I need stepping stones to close the distance once its back is turned!”

  “On it!” Tab pivoted quickly, running to her right while trying to draw the beast’s attention. Her movement slowed as she approached the creeping ring of mushrooms, but she managed to avoid their shocking tendrils as she kept slashing at the zombie.

  The monster took another step and looked towards Tabitha, the distraction clearly working. It raised its other hand, slamming it into the ground and creating another ring of expanding mushrooms. Tab’s speed ensured she was nowhere near the attack, but she stayed just close enough to keep the monster’s focus on her. After another few attacks, the zombie had completely turned its back on Roxy, and Alicia started summoning a series of thick barriers just over her thorns, as well as the mushroom tendrils covering the ground. Roxy leapt into the air, running across the barriers as she closed the distance, then jumped at the zombie. Alicia watched her movements carefully, and realized she was aiming for the zombie itself, and not the head of its strange mushroom carapace.

  Roxy drove one of her blades into the zombie’s back, and the second into its neck. Alicia quickly spawned one last barrier underneath Roxy, who used it as leverage to pull her first dagger back. She jammed it into the other side of the monster’s neck, then repeated the maneuver she’d used against the bear, pulling her knives together as they left the body. This time, the monster was small enough that she was able to decapitate it entirely.

  The zombie let out a pained groan as it fell over, and just before it landed in the thorn patch, its body vanished in a puff of smoke. The other bodies did the same, and soon the entire clearing was free of both the corpses and the overly aggressive fungus. With a heavy sigh, Alicia raised her hands and released the Wall of Thorns, letting all her magical foliage fade away to nothing.

  With the thorns gone, Roxy jumped back to the ground with a cheer. “We did it! Oh, that was amazing!”

  Alicia broke out into laughter as well, overjoyed at how well their fight had gone. “Using my barriers as stepping stones was a great idea! How’s everyone else doing? Any injuries?”

  Looking around, the group seemed to be in great shape. As far as Alicia could tell, the small shock she’d received at the start of the fight was the only injury they’d suffered. Kat had successfully avoided using any magic, and Tab had likely been close enough to need very little mana for her Dimensional Blades.

  “Seems like we knocked this one out of the park, everyone,” Kat said. “How about we gather up the loot and head back?”

  “I’m more than okay with that,” Tab said. “I actually hit Level Four just now. Thankfully, that’s an easy choice, as it’s just some stats. Two more points in Agility, and I’m done!”

  After assigning her Agility, Tab ran in place for a few moments, then joined the group in gathering all the loot. Just as previously discussed, everything they found went to Kat, who kept a small journal to track everything they found. After a few minutes of searching, they confirmed that the only reward had been a small handful of coins.

  Alicia, however, was mostly excited over how well the battle had gone. Tab had leveled up, they all seemed to fight well with Roxy in the party, and now they had another day of rest as they prepared to start the next floor of the Key Dungeon.

  When they started back towards the entrance, as Alicia made sure to watch for both animals and suspicious plant life, she had a smile on her face. They’d survived their first truly harrowing encounter, they had an extra part member, and she felt good about their odds. There was no doubt in her mind that her Heart Tree would be safe.

  "I would say that went really well! I wish Tab would lighten up on Roxy, though, she's got it hard enough without us being all mistrustful and stuff."

  Well, you and I both know how much Tab hates the Guilds. Especially Ashes.

  "Ugh, yeah, it's just frustrating. Anyways, this is unrelated, but I still can't believe I'm enjoying delving. Who would have thought, right?"

  You're also doing it in a Key Dungeon, which is an uniquely easygoing experience.

  "So? It's not like I'm planning on tackling the main Dungeon anytime soon. It's way too far, and I'm not in a Guild anyways. Although... nah, nevermind."

  What is it?

  "It's nothing, promise! Anyways, Kat's got another song for us! Today we'll be listening to Introduction and Rondo No. 2 Op. 2 by Dionisio Aguado. Kat says 'This song is a perfect blend of peaceful contemplation and excitement. Since this trip into the dungeon goes fairly well, I wanted to find a song that felt suitably jovial. It's got a fantastic blend of melodies, and I love the excited rhythm when things pick up in the faster sections.' I wonder if she... Hm..."

  Alicia? What are you planning?

  "It's nothing, promise! See ya next time!"

  Nyx <3

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