BXBX NOVEL Vol. 3 - Chapter 135 - Divided
"Dogora, Cecile!"
Dogora and Cecile disappeared during a battle with a B-rank magical beast. Dogora stepped on a Transfer Trap and Cecile who was also caught in the trap, was sent somewhere on the same floor.
(Oh, no. It's those two of all people.)
Dogora and Cecile, who both can't heal, were sent somewhere in this vast floor. B-rank magical beasts were roaming around the area.
I immediately sprang into action. I always have three Summon Squads working to collect experience and magic stones, but I deleted them all. In their place I began to summon C-rank Spirit Marias.
(First we need to find out where they are and bring them some medicine.)
Leaving it to Kurena to finish off the Cyclops that was still alive, I began creating Marias. I let them fly out one by one right after their creation process is complete.
Marias, under my order, phased through the dungeon walls and went straight ahead. They held a [Leaf of Life] and several [Mana Seed]s in their hands.
Normal healing items cannot phase through walls, but healing items created with Grass summons can.
"Allen, what are we going to do? Are we going to go look for them too?"
"No, there's no point in searching in the dark like this, so our first priority should be to confirm their location and send Maria and the others for backup."
Kurena and Kiel, who had already defeated the B-rank magical beast and were by my side, also looked worried.
(I've already given Dogora and Cecile some healing items. Also, the effects of the buffs shouldn't have worn off yet.)
I've given Dogora and Cecile 10 each of the [Leaf of Life], which restores overall health, and [Mana Seed], which restores overall mana. Of course, I have also given them to Kurena and Kiel who are here. But I didn't give them those with this situation in mind.
I gave them those assuming that I will lose consciousness or even die. Since there are no absolutes in adventure, this is an insurance policy to ensure that at least they can return from the dungeon if something were to happen.
And in order to defeat the B-rank magical beasts, the entire party is using Fish summon's special and awakened skills. In addition, the Fish summon's buffs are effective as long as you stay within a 50 meter radius.
C-rank Fish Fin's special skill [Shark Oil]
Increases critical hit rate and magical attack evasion rate
Effect lasts for 24 hours
D-rank Fish Harami's Awakening skill [Scatter]
Disables 10% of physical and magical attacks
Effect lasts for 1 hour
Cooldown time is 1 day
C-rank Fish Fin's Awakening skill [Shark Skin]
Critical hits and magical attacks evasion rate increased to 10%
Effect lasts for 1 hour
Cooldown time is 1 day.
You will not always receive an attack from an enemy. There is a certain probability of evasion, but this "evasion" is based on the enemy's speed, skill level, and the speed of the attacker.
If you evade, you take no damage.
The formula for calculating magical attacks seems to be different from that of physical attacks, so magic attacks deal a lot more damage than physical attacks.
D-rank Fish Harami's special skill, [Splash], increases the evasion rate of physical and magical attacks. I don't know the speed or skill level of the magical beast, but it increases it enough that I can feel it.
And D-rank Fish Fin's Awakening skill, [Scatter], absolutely nullifies 10% of such enemy attacks. It doesn't matter how fast the enemy is, or how powerful their magic is, one out of ten times they won't hit you, and the effect wears off in an hour, but I honestly think it's an amazing skill.
Then there is the concept of critical hit in physical and magical attacks. The damage is doubled. The rate at which this happens depends on the speed and skill of the attacker. It also seems more likely to occur when you attack a vital point.
And Fin's awakening skill [Shark Skin] will generate an absolute 10% of such critical hit rate. No matter how quick the enemy is, 10% of the attacks that hit are critical hits.
Everyone had four buffs to them when we attacked the Orc Kings and the Cyclops.
Half an hour has passed since Marias started flying in all directions.
"Oraaaaaaaaaaahhhh!!!!"
"Flame Burst!"
(There they are! Over there!)
I hear Dogora and Cecile's voices via a Maria that was phasing through the walls.
The place was a small room that was a dead end.
The first thing I saw was Dogora, covered in blood, fighting with Cecile behind him.
Surrounding them were three B-rank magical beasts: two Basilisk Kings and what appears to be an Ogre. It seems that they were transferred in that small room.
One of Dogora's eyes was blocked with blood from his forehead, and it seemed like they had already used up all of their healing items in the past half hour.
Dogora gripped his axe in one hand and was engaged in a battle with a giant Ogre nearly seven meters tall. Behind him, Cecile was fighting back with magic.
(Maria, use [Poltergeist]!)
"Yes, kill them all~Death! [Poltergeist]!
C-rank Spirit Maria activated her awakening skill [Poltergeist]. Then 100 gray volleyball-sized spheres appeared and headed towards the magical beasts at once.
Each sphere was equivalent to an all-out attack Maria's special skill [Psychic]. It consumes 100 mana and has a cooldown time of 1 day.
She defeated all three B-rank magical beasts at once and healed Dogora and Cecile with a [Leaf of Life].
"Are you alright~Death?"
"...Yeah, it was a bit of a mess, though. Thank you for coming."
"Huu-hah," sighed Dogora, relieved to have the reinforcements.
"We'll be coming to get you soon, so stay there and wait..."
"Brrrr!"
Before Maria could finish, a new magical beast appeared in front of her. Apparently, there was still a magical beast nearby. Two more Great Boars came rushing by.
"... We'll stay here and wait while we kill these magical beasts."
Cecile grabbed her wand and muttered. Despite the situation, there seemed to be no fear on Cecile's face.
(Oh, no. There are still some left! Marias, change of location.)
I direct the 20 Marias scattered in all directions where to go. Maria that were moving towards a completely different location were carded at once, returned to my hand, summoned again, and then sent on their way.
"Dogora and Cecile are safe."
"Really?"
"Now that we know where they are, the three of us will go!"
"Yeah, let's go!"
All three of us got on Fran and started heading towards Dogora and Cecile.
"Kurena, Kiel, I'm going to use [Sprint], so hold on tight to Fran. Frans, use [Sprint]!"
""Kyuiii!!!""
"What?"
"Huh?"
[Sprint] is the awakening skill of C-rank Bird Fran.
It allows Fran to run at an estimated speed of 300 kilometers per hour for one hour. The cool time until the next activation is one day.
With a shout, Fran began to run with unprecedented strength. With their neck parallel to the ground, they ran through the 90-degree turn without slowing down.
I was hit by inertia from the side, but I grasped the feather on the Fran I was riding on and continued.
Kiel was, "This is impossible!" but I had already told Fans to not throw us off, so I ignored him.
Again, the three Frans were advancing ahead of us to prevent traps. Magical beasts appeared, but we ignored them and forced our way forward.
The movements of the magical beasts, the confirmation of the route, the movement of Maria, and countless other things were being processed in my mind.
(I hope we get there in time.)
Even when I knew where Dogora and Cecile were, we couldn't phase through walls and just go there. And we won't reach them faster just because I used [Sprint] either. We are in a labyrinth, we will have to take detours to reach them.
However, there was no time to investigate the optimal path. Even if we make a few wrong turns, we know the direction we have taken if we go straight ahead, we'll cover it with our speed somehow.
An hour has passed since Frans used [Sprint].
The path was quite intricate and we couldn't go straight, so we had to modify our path as we went. We knew our destination, so it was only a matter of time.
(Oh, there they are. Thank God.)
"Uraaaaah!!!"
As Dogora was about to cut down a B-rank magical beast Ogre, we found them.
There were 20 Marias floating around Dogora and Cecile. They were in perfect condition with the help of [Leaf of Life].
"Thank God, are you okay?"
"Yeah, well, I knew it was bad when I got thrown off. I'm sorry about that. I stepped in a trap."
Dogora apologized for feeling that he had caused trouble for the party.
"No need to apologize", we all said to him and that we were glad that they were safe.
"But this time it was pretty bad. I wonder if we should recruit a Thief that can detect traps."
KieI said what I had been thinking while coming here. If we had included someone that could detect traps, we might have been able to avoid the incident this time.
"I don't know. I feel like it's a little late for that after all this progress."
(Well, that's true.)
If we were to recruit a student from the Academy, we will have to start from conquering three C-class dungeons and bringing him/her up to speed.
"I think me and Kiel were too far back in the fight. We should be about right behind Allen."
Cecile, who was transferred along with Dogora, seemed to disagree. She wanted to adjust the formation positions instead and gave a few other ideas.
The magic circle is of a certain size, so we could all fit in that range.
Always summon multiple Marias, and keep them around Kurena and Dogora in the front and Cecile and Kiel in the back.
Carry extra healing items for each person.
With these implementations, for now, the decision to recruit a Thief or Scout was put on hold.
"After this slight detour, let's get back on track."
""Oh!""
With Allen's shout, they continued on their objective to conquer the A-class dungeon.