I was also pretty sure that Levia picked up on the concepts from modern programming that I introduced extremely fast. I certainly wasn’t the best and most proficient teacher but she was a bright and incredible student, being able to grasp the meaning and function of various things shortly after hearing my description and asking a bunch of additional questions. I had no doubts that she would become a pro at this if she attended a serious course. Perhaps we could sign her up for some after she got more used to modern technology. Even the priciest lessons shouldn’t be a problem for us now.

  We’d become so engrossed in our exciting research and creation of additional arcanas that we didn’t even notice how late it got until Levia let out a delicate yawn. I curiously checked my phone at that moment and found out that it was already early at night. We’d spent half a day if not more over those arcanas and hadn’t even noticed our hunger.

  Even more curious about one more thing, I walked out of the workshop, stepping back into the kitchen complex. Looking around, I found Aisha sitting in front of the PC with a few empty boxes of sushi lying on the ground next to the desk. We came closer with Levia and she didn’t even notice our presence until a few minutes after we peered over her shoulder.

  I was wondering why she hadn’t come to fetch us even once but it turned out that she’d been playing this entire time, most likely wanting to entertain herself while waiting for us to come out of the workshop. The simple browser game had captured her so hard she’d lost track of time too, just like us. I could understand that well. Matching those rows and columns of colorful jewels into threes or more was hella addicting.

  Since she’d clearly already eaten—quite a lot judging by the boxes—we picked up something for ourselves with Levia and moved to the dining table in the kitchen to fill our bellies. Aisha joined us and we chatted about what had taken us so long. She kept smirking my way during the entire meal so I berated her for wasting time in gaming heaven instead of checking on us.

  Naturally, everything was for laughs and I wasn’t really angry or mad at her. We were all at fault there, honestly. None of us had any energy left to tackle the Dungeon so we agreed to reschedule the expedition for tomorrow. I returned with Levia to her den and the two of us finished brewing the concoction before it was time to get to bed.

  In the morning, we shared breakfast and Aisha came with us to Levia’s workshop, really curious to see what had absorbed us so much. She watched the creation of arcanas for about half an hour before getting slightly bored and starting to look around the chamber kind of pointlessly.

  We had created a decent supply already so it was a good time to move on. Before we stepped into the Dungeon, I recalled my earlier thoughts about how eye-catching our door was from the other side and Levia offered to quickly prepare a solution for that. We all returned to her lab and began to work on it together.

  Our handy Witch tasked me with purchasing a few things from the D-Market while Aisha had to bring her a bunch of ingredients from our storage. Taking the shopping list from her, I carefully bought the necessary materials and we met back in the workshop again. Levia clearly knew what she was doing better than us so we just observed her craft with Aisha.

  Ten minutes later, she was done grinding a few monster parts into dust and mixed them all together in a big cup. Pouring what she called Mirror Sea Water into it, she mixed the solution for a few more minutes. Leaving it to rest, she cut a few nuclei into half and covered the flat sides with some gluey substance resembling black resin. With everything ready, we stepped outside of our home and Levia got to work.

  We observed as she painted a thick line over the doorframe, using the prepared solution. It looked like a few layers were necessary as we had to wait for the mixture to dry up before Levia repeated the action. After the fifth time, she passed the cup to me and attached the nuclei over the created path, creating a single row of stud-like protrusions.

  When she whispered a few quiet words, the air in front of the door shimmered and a wall suddenly appeared in front of our eyes, no different from the gray bricks making up the rest of the corridor. Using her Voodoo Magic, Levia had brought forth a decently detailed illusion to hide our entrance. It remained still as long as no one touched the space of the fake image.

  Neat.

  With that out of the way, we began our hunt and exploration. For the next three days, including the day of our initial departure, we walked all around the labyrinth of hallways in search of any special areas and important points of interest. Since we knew where the Priest’s home was, we decided to move in the opposite direction, hoping to stumble on another Defender’s Personal Domain. We still hadn’t confirmed if there were four of us or three but I had a feeling that this Dungeon was packed.

  We didn’t find anything worthy of attention but at least our cooperation was starting to slowly pick up after we’d summoned Levia. It was becoming more comfortable fighting together, knowing what everyone was capable of. We saw plenty of Levia’s curses and arcanas while she got used to Aisha’s quite barbaric fighting style and me supporting her mostly from behind, save for some rare occasions where I jumped in to have some fun too.

  Then, on the fourth day of our leveling, our brave Pixie scout suddenly popped out of one of the corridors she’d been checking and sped back towards us with a panicked sway. Rose circled us a few times with quite the energy and stopped behind my back. Hiding there, she tried to make herself appear as small as possible.

  “What’s the problem, Rose? A strong enem—”

  “Wait uppppppppppppppppppp! I just want to huuuuuuuuug youuuuuuuuuuuu!”

  A loud, squeaky, feminine voice interrupted me, echoing through the stone corridors in front of us. We immediately took defensive positions and watched an overly excited girl lunge into our hallway, swinging her head around in search of something, which clearly was our rosy friend.

  The woman appeared to be quite young and short, but looks could be deceiving when it came to other races, and her features made that part obvious. She had deep pink skin, quite short bubblegum-colored hair, small pointy ears, and enchanting yellow eyes. A thin tail came out of her very dark shorts, ending with the shape of an arrowhead.

  Most of her legs, arms, and belly were exposed as only the aforementioned shorts covered her body, alongside a small, leather breastplate of the same color. Besides a single dagger by her waist, she had no other visible weapons, but a weird, black aura surrounded her, licking the air in her close vicinity.

  “Oh, hi!” The bubbly girl beamed a heartwarming smile at us. “Looks like I’m running into lots of people today! Have you guys maybe seen a cute little pinkish orb zoom through the air somewhere?”

  Just as she finished her question, another person stepped into the corridor. It didn’t take us long to recognize the first Defender we’d met after receiving this assignment.

  The edgy Assassin was here.

  Chapter 14

  A Great Match

  “Looks like it didn’t take long for us to run into each other again.” I smiled and waved at the Assassin man.

  “Oh? You know each other already?” The energetic girl spun on her heels, taking a glance at each of us.

  “I guess you can say that. Though, I don’t think we caught each other’s names the last time.” I chuckled as he nodded lightly to my words.

  “No surprises there. Even I didn’t get to learn the old man’s name yet.” She huffed, crossing her arms under her chest.

  “Old man?” The Assassin guy’s brows rose slightly.

  “What else are you if not an old man with that deep voice.” The pink girl put her fists on her sides. “The fact that most of your body is hidden, including half of your face, doesn’t help. I bet you are ugly as hell. But, don’t worry, I don’t discriminate based on appearance.”

  He seemed to sigh at her as she sent him a wink and giggled adorably. Before long, the girl turned her attention to us and comically squinted her eyes. She pointed a finger at everyone, including herself, while silently moving her lips. Finishing, she scrunched her nose and put her hands on her hips once more.

  “So, what’s going on here? I’m fairly sure that this Dungeon should have four people in total, but maybe I’m seeing things because there are five of us here.” She tilted her head. “I also ran into a Priest previously so that would make six. Ah! Don’t tell me you are the Dungeon Masters of this place and came here to kill us!”

  A panicked expression surfaced on her face as she took a few steps back, lowering her posture. The black, mist-like aura intensified around her figure and she warily kept her eyes on the three of us. It was quite apparent that whatever that fog was, it was connected to her ability or weapon.

  “They are Defenders. I confirmed that myself during our first meeting,” the roguish guy said, placing a hand on the short girl’s shoulder. “Though, there definitely were just two of you at that time.”

  “That’s because I have expanded my team since then,” I replied. “I understand your suspicions and anxiety so I guess I have to share a thing or two about me to reassure everyone. I’m a Commander and they are my teammates. You met Aisha previously, a Berserker, and this here is Levia, a Witch. I’m Lucas. We are three, but for the System, we count as one.”

  My drakan mate waved at them while my new lunar elf friend made a curt nod.

  “That certainly explains a lot.” The girl relaxed a little bit, showing a dazzling smile again. “I’m Lulu. My Class is Shadowmancer. I can shape and weaponize shadows, though I can’t control much more than my own aura yet.”

  She twirled the black mist around her forearm and thrust it forward. The ominous fog followed the motion and struck the air ahead of her hand by forming a deadly spike. She giggled and leaned to the back, seating herself on the faint smoke like on a floating throne, crossing her legs over each other and putting her hands behind her head.

  “And I’m Ashmel. I’m a Rogue,” the silver-skinned man said.

  ~The fuck you are.~ Aisha snorted inside our connection.

  ~Is he not?~ Levia asked.

  ~He showed us his Stigma the last time and Lucas identified him as an Assassin. There’s no way he is mistaken. His knowledge about the Classes is vaster than an ocean,~ my mate answered.

  ~Although she is exaggerating, I have to agree with the part about knowing a thing or two about Classes. There’s no way he is a Rogue,~ I chimed in.

  ~Looks like he is hiding something. I wonder if he gave us his real name too. We should be careful around that guy, especially considering the fact that we still aren’t sure who the killer is,~ Aisha suggested.

  ~We’ll discuss it later. While our thoughts travel fast, it will soon be a few seconds since anyone spoke so it might get suspicious too,~ I pointed out.

  Both Aisha and Levia sent me a mental nod and we refocused on the current situation.

  “As for the pink orb you have been chasing, she’s my familiar. I apologize, but she is a shy creature and someone suddenly running to catch her was enough to spook her,” I explained.

  The girl jumped off her mist chair and made a sad expression. “Ohhhhh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know. She was just so cute that I really wanted to hug her.”

  “It’s alright as long as you understand. If you promise not to startle her like that, I think she won’t mind coming back,” I replied and Lulu looked up at me with puppy eyes.

  Barely holding in a chuckle, I reassured Rose mentally that we wouldn’t let anyone hurt her and our adorable companion floated up from behind my back, stopping next to my face.

  At that very moment, the girl’s face literally sparkled with excitement as she tippy-tapped in place. She sprinted to us and came to a sudden halt right in front of me, gazing up at Rose with her mouth hanging open, pretty much leaning onto me.

  “Sooooooo cuuuuuuuteeeeee!” she cooed. “Is that a Pixie? Amazing! I’ve never seen a Pixie follow a human before! You are a human, right? You certainly smell like one. Though, many races look similar. Can I lick you?”

  “What?” I laughed softly when met with her lively barrage.

  “She is a lust imp. It’s of no surprise that she remembers the taste of each race she has sucked off. You two are quite a match.” Aisha grinned at me.

  “It’s not lust imp but love imp!” Lulu crossed her arms and pouted, her thin tail smacking the air behind her in irritation.

  “Sure, sure. Whatever you say.” My drakan mate snorted.

  “And not to be rude but humans are… average. Very average. Their desires are supposedly so strong and so powerful that they make it their life goal to chase after us to fulfill them, but they are always so disappointing.” The petite imp girl shook her head. ”How can you consider your desires anything but basic when you tire after a round or two? There are so many, big, strong, burly races that know how to love an imp…”

  Aisha sent me another little grin while poking me with her elbow and I rolled my eyes at her. I had no reason nor intentions to defend my honor as a human, regardless of how much my sly mate tried to incite me. Especially when the person could very well be the enemy we were looking for.

  I didn’t fancy death by snu snu.

  “But, even though you are a human, you certainly smell a little different.” Lulu trotted around me while spinning around. “Having two pretty female companions hints that you are something special.”

  “Oh yeah, special is an understate—mmmhhhwwwm!”

  Before my mischievous girlfriend could drag me into something troublesome, I managed to seal her mouth with a hand.

  “I was just extremely lucky.” I chuckled wryly. “But, in any way, what are you two doing? I thought you preferred working alone, Ashmel.”

  If he was the culprit, then it wouldn’t be stupid to suspect him of trying to lower Lulu’s guard before finding an opportunity to strike her down. He could have been planning to get rid of her the same way he had dealt with the Priest, injuring her in a place with lots of monsters to make it look like she died in a normal fight. Though, we didn’t know if he was aware that the other guy had survived. They might have not met again yet.

  “I found him spying on some weird thing in a big chamber, trying to be all sneaky and that. Nothing can hide in the shadows before me.” Lulu beamed at me with a proud smile.

  Ashmel pulled his shawl a little higher over his face, clearly hiding his embarrassment of getting caught by such a scrawny-looking girl. “There’s a magical pylon channeling spiritual energy to the west from here. Multiple enemies of a wide threat range are stationed inside. I might be used to doing things on my own, but I’m not an idiot who would get himself into a clearly disadvantageous situation.”

  “So, we teamed up. But, before we jumped in, he insisted on taking a stroll around the area to see if there were no other big surprises in case the monsters inside that chamber made lots of noise and attracted an Elite or something,” Lulu continued. “Since you are here, do you want to join? It’s definitely going to be a cream pie with the five of us!”

  “Cream pie?” I blinked a few times.

  “Lust imps,” Aisha whispered to my right ear with a quiet snicker.

  “It is their equivalent of a piece of cake,” Levia whispered to my left ear with her calm voice.

  I shook my head with a sigh. “Sure. I think that’s a good idea. We haven’t found anything useful for clearing this Dungeon yet. While the timer is quite lax, we can’t get too relaxed.”

  “Yeah. That pylon might be a hint. The assignment talks about removing the source of corruption. I wouldn’t be surprised if those pillars are at least partially responsible for it,” the Assassin guy said.

  “What are we waiting for, then? It’s time to smash!” The bubbly Shadowmancer cheered, causing me and Aisha to chuckle.

  “Lead the way.” I smiled at her and we started following the duo.

  The stone corridors didn’t change much towards the area they guided us to. It didn’t look like the pylons would be located in a different segment of this small necropolis. Or it was just that the entire underground complex had the same, identical style no matter the direction or purpose of the facility constructed there.

  But, who knew what these ruins could be hiding?

  As expected, we ran into a few small fries on our way to the chamber with the unusual pillar. My party remained in the back while Ashmel and Lulu dealt with the enemies we encountered. It was a great opportunity to watch them fight and gain some intel on each of the two.

  No surprises, the Assassin guy mostly kept himself away from the enemy unless it was plainly impossible. He attentively observed all the opponents engaged in the battle with them and looked for the perfect moment to strike them down. Thanks to his nimble movements and high accuracy, he had no issues dodging all the blows the Skeletons made and launching sporadic counterattacks.

  As for the short Shadowmancer girl, she fought exactly the same as she behaved. Lulu’s movements were jittery and quick. She often spun around and made energetic jumps in every direction, including the vertical plane. She boldly faced her opponents, giggling and chuckling to herself as she shaped her aura into various dangerous forms, great for defense and offense.

  Thanks to her efforts, Ashmel was able to find the opportunities he needed to skillfully destroy the nuclei of the more dangerous enemies, leaving the less scary Skeletons either to her or us. He showed his proficiency with that unusual dagger once more, confirming that it hadn’t been just luck the last time he’d taken down the Death Knight for us.

  Soon, we slowed our approach and he signaled us to turn the noise down a little bit. He’d kind of assumed the role of the leader of this temporary team-up. Since they knew the most about the situation, I didn’t have any issues with that. I could focus on paying more attention to him and the girl.

  ~Try to keep your arcanas a secret for as long as possible,~ I instructed Levia before we reached our destination. ~If they know anything about Witches, it will make a good element of surprise in case of an emergency.~