BXBX NOVEL Chapter 131 - Learning (3)
Everyone looked at Alexander in shock. He wasn\'t stupid, but he wasn\'t the type to say smart things that often… in any case, his idea was pretty good… it was hard to make Earth as sharp as the arrowheads, but things were different with ice… it would completely protect the projectiles.
"You might be right, but Kate can\'t combine water and wind yet," Billy said. "She will have to try and practice for a while, what do you think?"
"I will try once I have time," Kate replied. "In any case, for the time being, I will make it do with Earth Manipulation."
Kate tried that, and as expected, it was working. After every battle, she just had to get rid of the earth covering her weapons, and change for other ones. However, as expected, she lost some piercing power, and her control decreased… she had to use more mana to compensate for that when adding spin to her short spears.
While the group were trying to improve themselves inside the dungeon, two hours passed, and at the same time, they had already filled two boxes with the crabs\' meat. At the same time, Billy noticed that they were approaching the end of the first floor. The reason for that was the fact that they found many bifurcations at some point, and the right path was the correct one in all of those. So, they were walking in a large spiral. The more they approached the center of the spiral, the more bifurcation they found. Until they found some stairs going downward, and they also found a group of people arguing.
"Leader, it is about time… we have been fighting here for a full month! We can survive on the second floor."
"Please, reconsider, leader."
It was a party of eight fairly young individuals, and the leader was someone around Kate\'s age. He was a guy armed with a bow, and he seemed troubled when looking at the boy and the girl who was eager to go to the second floor. They stopped for a short while their argument when they saw Billy\'s group, but soon they began to mind their own business.
"Is this the entrance to the second level?" Lily asked.
"Seems like it…" Billy said while he was writing down the final details of the first map. "Then, as we decided beforehand… Let\'s retreat."
The other group frowned when they saw Billy\'s party leaving without making any fuss… moreover, their leader apparently was the youngest of them. Despite his age, he also seemed pretty cautious. In any case, the other group felt a bit awkward about making a scene at such a place, but after a while, they began to argue again…
"Despite their size, the crabs are surprisingly weak enemies, huh," Natalie said. "I hope we can find more challenging enemies on the second level."
"Let\'s not get carried away… the fights had been easy because Billy and Sarah have been blinding the enemies with mud," Lily said while forcing a smile.
Things got a bit more relaxed as soon as they left the dungeon, and thanks to that, Natalie said something careless. Still, she quickly corrected herself and asked Lily to help with her training. Apparently, she wanted to be shot at with Water Balls… it was a bit hard to fire more powerful projectiles when Lily rarely used her magic to fight. Still, it was better than nothing.
"Remember, stay together and avoid incidents… it would be better if you trained in your room," Billy said.
"Avoid incidents… you say," Kate said and then giggled a little.
Billy sighed since he couldn\'t complain. He truly was the last person they would want to hear that from. In any case, they sold the meat at the guild, and then they headed toward the library of the guild. Billy told them to go rest in their rooms, but they said that they wanted to help and speed up things. In the end, they regretted it a little since Billy got several books… reading them would take several hours.
"These books mention many things about the dungeon," Billy said. "Let\'s research as much as possible to avoid problems. With some luck, we won\'t have to do more research once we find the entrance to the third level."
Billy had planned to do the research slowly, but since his friends were there, he could make things proceed forward faster. For the good or for the worst, they were young. They had more energy than they could use, so a day off while exploring the dungeon was a waste of time and unnecessary.
Although Natalie, Alexander, and Lily were ready to give up after a couple of hours, the others persisted. Billy didn\'t know, but it seemed that Kate had been teaching Sarah how to read as well… In any case, thanks to that, they manage to compile quite a lot of information regarding the dungeon. First of all, the dungeon that three types of minions, the crabs on the first floor. On the second and on the third floor, there were cold Golems, and on the last two could be found the Aquatic Beasts. However, even though they checked all the books, there was no mention of the guardian of the core…
Billy couldn\'t imagine Marie disclosing information about it for whatever reason. She was troublesome, but she didn\'t look like the type who would do underhanded things to keep others from achieving the same as her…