Eminira Dungeon (3)
From the third floor onward, we first observed the adults defeat the monsters, then it was our turn to try. The monsters on the third floor were called Aguppa—hedgehog-like creatures about 40 cm in size. Their fur was covered in quills, which they would launch at enemies. The troublesome part was that if you got pricked, the area around the wound would go numb for a while.
There were about ten of them at first, but the deeper you went, the more Aguppa there were. Eventually, you'd face around a hundred attacking at once. The key was to fend off the quills while defeating them.
The third floor was a dry land with sparse grass and scattered large shrubs—almost like a plain. There were no defined paths; you just walked straight ahead. At first, the Golden Wings were going to demonstrate how to handle them.
After walking for about ten minutes, the Golden Wings at the front stopped and told us to look ahead. About a hundred meters away, we saw small figures—likely Aguppa. They start firing quills when you get within twenty meters. We watched from about fifty meters away.
As the Golden Wings approached the Aguppa, they launched their quills all at once, but Linka’s barrier repelled them, and the quills fell to the ground. Once the barrier was lifted, the three men quickly defeated the Aguppa with swords.
The loot was ten iron plates, each 5 cm long, 5 cm wide, and 3 cm thick—one per Aguppa. Once they shoot their quills, it takes about ten minutes for them to regenerate. Since they have no other means of attack, they’re not hard to defeat as long as the quills are blocked.
“Can you make walls with earth magic, Canal?”
“No, not yet. I can fix walls now, but…”
So maybe a wall made of water?
I kept visualizing a water wall with a continuous stream of water flowing down it, and eventually, a wall of flowing water appeared before me.
“Whoa!” I exclaimed, and the wall immediately collapsed and vanished.
Huh? I think I just pulled it off.
“Reinhardt, what was that?! What was that?! How did you do it?” Canal asked and tried to do it too. He managed to make something that looked like a wall for a second before it disappeared. He kept trying, but the wall always vanished quickly.
“I swear I’ll get it eventually,” Canal said, frustrated.
Apparently, no one in the Golden Wings or the Knights Order knew whether a wall of water could block Aguppa quills, so we decided to test it. Just in case it didn’t work, Linka would create a wall behind mine. This time, I would only focus on making the wall—Canal, Atre, and Ripka would do the fighting.
When we encountered the Aguppa, I created a flowing Water Wall. The quills hit it, and flowed down along with the water—they were successfully blocked. Canal and the others then launched their spells, and the battle was over.
“I wish I had water magic… It seems like you can do so much with it.” Murmured Allie. Then she suddenly rushed at me.
“Young master Reinhardt, do you have any other ice magic you can use besides what you mentioned last time?”
“Huh? You don’t make walls out of ice?”
“You can make walls out of ice?” We just kept questioning each other.
According to Young master Rainhall, if you could make an Iceball, you should be able to make a wall too. Iceballs are extremely tough—just stretch it vertically and horizontally, and that’s it.
Allie said “Ice Wall,” and after a few attempts, she managed to make a thick wall of ice.
“I’ll make the wall next!” she said happily, and then we went to defeat the Aguppa.
“Let me make the wall next.” said Knight Wilson.
Wilson used water magic and said he’d try making the same wall as me.
“You said you’d never done that before.” I said, and he explained that while we were fighting, he had been practicing behind us and managed to learn it—now he wanted to try it out.
Brother Gerald told us to rest. “Let us handle a bit too,” he said.
After that, Allie, Linka, Wilson, and I took turns making walls while others did the fighting, and we eventually reached the boss room. Knights Hamilton and Kamuela, who could use earth magic, looked disappointed—they hadn’t had a chance to step in.
The boss of the third floor was a huge caterpillar called Burgo. It spits out threads from its mouth and wraps its target in them. This time, we were just observing the adults' battle.
“Young master Reinhardt, how would you use ice magic to attack?” Allieasked me.
I suggested freezing the area around its mouth so it couldn’t spit threads, or if possible, freezing its entire face. Then we could defeat it with swords or magic.
“That’s a great idea. I’ll try that.” Allie said. She had already mastered a freezing spell but hadn’t had the chance to try it.
Usually, they use wind magic to blow away the threads as they’re shot, and someone else cuts Burgo’s body. Or they weaken it with fire magic and then finish it off with a sword.
Apparently, the Golden Wings had Allie continuously fire ice magic, while the three men closed in and defeated it with swords.
Moved by Allie’s enthusiasm, Brother Gerald gave up the boss fight to the Golden Wings. The three men—Salem, Gregory, and Will, were a bit embarrassed, but Allie, now with more ways to use ice magic, was in high spirits.
“Let’s just get this over with.” She said cheerfully.
When we entered the boss room, Burgo wasn’t there.
We were wondering where it would come from, and then it started spitting thread down at us from the ceiling—but Allie was faster and froze its face with ice magic.
Burgo fell with a thud, and Salem and the others quickly sliced through its torso with swords, ending the battle.
The loot was two iron ingots.
It really was over in no time.
What do you think about this chapter?
