The End

Kaito and Rina took a break and ate food Rina had brought out of her inventory.

“So that monster you were being terrorized by was a Mimic,” Rina explained. “They show illusions to people to get them comfortable with them, then proceed to eat their life force.” Rina continued, asking, “So what did the Mimic appear as for you?”

Knowing well enough that he could not tell Rina what happened, Kaito started choking on his food.

“Whoa, are you alright!?” Rina said, shocked by Kaito’s sudden panic. “Here, take some water,” she added while she handed Kaito a drink.

Kaito, scoffing down the water to get the food down, still managed to give Rina an answer. “I don’t want to talk about it…”

Kaito did not realize how angry he sounded when he said that. Because of it, Rina started feeling guilty about Kaito’s frustration with himself. Of the many times Kaito tried to impress her, she acted nonchalantly. Then there was the fact that she always showed her disappointment in him when he messed up. For the first time, the Lonely Queen was worried about being left alone.

As the two finished their break, they continued to traverse the castle dungeon. Following the hints on the scroll, they finally found the hidden chest containing the key to the lower floors. It took a while to notice, but the rectangular chest was masked as a pedestal within the castle’s sanctuary room. Unveiling the cloth concealing the chest, Kaito and Rina had to open the chest to get the key.

“You think you can open it?” Rina asked. “It can come more naturally to someone of your class.”

Rina meant what she said, but was also partially asking to give Kaito a chance to show off. Taking Rina’s offer, Kaito approached the chest, cracking his knuckles.

“Alright, I think I got this,” Kaito confidently said.

Kaito took out a lock-picking tool from his inventory, which he had bought on impulse because it fit the theme of his class. With a bit of effort, Kaito opened the chest successfully.

“Good job, Kaito,” Rina said as she leaned down behind Kaito, congratulating him.

Turning his body to face Rina, Kaito gave a thumbs-up and smiled.

Kaito and Rina retrieved the key from the chest and stored the other treasures in their inventory so that they could sell them later. With the key in hand, they headed towards the locked door on the ground level of the castle dungeon, which would lead them to the lower level.

Upon entering the never-before-explored lower levels of the abandoned castle, the area was completely disorganized. Likely to have collapsed as the years passed, the lower levels were filled with piles of rubble and uneven pathways.

As the two helped each other get through the decrepit layout, they got deeper and deeper within the castle. At the end of the castle, now turned cavern, they finally stumbled upon a room.

The room was much tidier than what they had just traversed through, as the stone structure was still in good condition. In the center of the room was a circular pillar with one path leading towards the top. Beyond the pillar, below were raging tides that likely stemmed from the river outside the castle.

Kaito and Rina walked the path leading to the pillar, but when they reached it, the path behind them began crumbling.

“Again!?” Kaito complained as he looked back at the now-gone path.

“Eyes in front,” Rina commanded Kaito as a boss-like enemy appeared.

The rubble from the disappearing path floated around the arena and towards a large floating piece of armor. The armor only consisted of the chestpiece and helmet, but it was large enough to tower over the pillar Kaito and Rina were on. The rubble that floated towards the monster turned into two large blades that could slash over the whole circumference of the pillar.

A battle was upon them, and the enemy made the first move.

The large armor husk swept one of its blades over the arena, but Kaito and Rina easily dodged it. Another swipe came rushing towards them, not allowing them to catch their breath. Though the monster was enormous, its attacks were slow and predictable; thus, the attack was dodged again.

In the midst of dodging, Rina instructed Kaito. “Remember, Kaito, we need to crush its helm. Get ready to attack when I give you an opening.”

As Kaito acknowledged Rina’s plan, she set it into motion. During one of the large husk’s swings, Rina stayed put and instead readied a skill.

“COUNTER!!!” Rina yelled as her Counter skill eviscerated the stone blade of the armor husk.

Getting the signal, Kaito rushed towards the monster’s helm. He activated his Pinpoint skill and made a noticeable dent in the husk’s helm.

“Dang, not enough power,” Kaito criticized himself.

Falling towards the arena, Kaito realized too late that he was about to get hit by the second blade. Rina, activating her Acceleration skill, which allows her to move quickly for a short time, rescued Kaito before he got sliced.

“Don’t worry, we don’t need to rush it,” Rina reassured Kaito as he set him down.

“Right!” Kaito responded with confidence.

In the brief time the two conversed, the armor husk started launching the stone from the broken blade towards them as projectiles. They both swiftly dodged at first, but the continuous projectiles were beginning to be too much for Kaito.

Kaito realized he was struggling again, but in desperation, not wanting to be saved by Rina again, he managed to copy the Acceleration skill, which he had only seen a few seconds before.

Rina was shocked at Kaito’s achievement and was motivated to step up herself. Also activating her Acceleration skill, she and Kaito swiftly dodged the oncoming rubble and rushed towards the large husk’s helm. Attacking in unison, the two destroyed the monster’s helm, but underneath, a will-o'-wisp resembling a skull appeared.

Upon the monster’s face being revealed, it let out a screeching roar, blowing back both Kaito and Rina. Rina rebalanced herself with the Air Step skill, but Kaito, not having that skill, tumbled towards the arena's edge. Unable to recover from the knockback, Kaito fell off the arena and towards the raging tides.

Rina called Kaito to see if he somehow latched on to something, but there was no answer. She just had to believe the tides would lead Kaito somewhere safe. Rina was now one-on-one with the dungeon boss.

The rubble of the now revealed will-o’-wisp started flaming, matching the light blue color of its head.

The will-o’-wisp launched the flaming rubble towards Rina. She dodged it easily, but now the rubble started creating explosions, hindering Rina’s movement and vision. Through the blast came the still-intact stone blade, which was also set ablaze. Rina couldn’t dodge it this time, but she blocked the attack with her sword.

However, the will-o’-wisp’s blade was so large that she was pushed off the arena. Using Air Step, she propelled herself back onto the arena. In conjunction with her momentum, she used her Pierce skill to attack the will-o’-wisp’s head.

Unfortunately, her attack did not defeat the boss, but it deactivated its flame, which was a protective barrier for its head.

Rina realized this and rushed to attack the boss’s head again to finish it. The will-o’-wisp swung its blade to defend itself, but Rina jumped over it. As she readied her attack to finish the boss off, it blocked Rina’s path with the flaming rubble. Rina had to use her Air Step skill again to retreat from her attack lest she get caught in the flame’s explosion. Rina, in frustration, had to watch as the will-o’-wisp would likely recover its flame with the flaming rubble.

“AIR STEP!!!”

Kaito came out of nowhere from behind the will-o’-wisp’s head, managing to get within range of an attack. With all his force, Kaito jammed his dagger into the skull of the will-o’-wisp with both his hands. While yelling, Kaito continued to thrust his dagger into the will-o’-wisp’s skull, inevitably destroying it.

With the skull destroyed, the boss’s structure crumbled and fell to the tides beyond the pillar. Still having airborne momentum, Kaito tumbled towards the arena in front of Rina.

Rina, leaning down to help Kaito, says, “So you finally got your chance to show off on your own. Great job.”

Kaito, cockily rubbing the underside of his nose, responds with a smile, “It was nothing.”

After helping Kaito up, Rina continued to ask, “So, how did you not fall off into the water?”

Kaito explained how he activated Air Step once before landing in the water. After that, he manually climbed up and around the pillar to preserve energy, inevitably getting back up and attacking after she created another opening for him.

“You not only learned Acceleration, but also Air Step,” analyzed Rina. “You’re really giving it your all.”

As Kaito felt very flattered by Rina finally being impressed by him, the relic the two were searching for appeared, rising from the center of the arena from atop a smaller pillar.

“Oh, look, that must be the relic!” Kaito stated.

As Kaito approached the small pillar, an attack drenched in great darkness was launched towards Kaito from out of nowhere. Rina, reacting to the attack, used her Quick Slash skill, allowing her to rush towards the attack to parry it away from Kaito.

“What was that!?” Kaito said, caught off guard.

A mysterious figure approached them, “I will be reaping the reward of your hard work.”

It was the same guy in black armor who sat on the corpse in the dungeon ruins near Giora.

“Y-you! There’s no way we’re going to let you take that!” Kaito antagonized the man. “Rina and I will—”

Kaito was interrupted by Rina falling to the ground on one knee.

“Rina!?” Kaito said worriedly, knowing he could not defeat the man without her.

“I used too many skills…” Rina mustered.

The man, whose eyes mysteriously turned yellow to green, interrupted them. “That girl who tried to stand up to my level is facing reality,” he said in a now overconfident tone. Glaring towards Kaito in disgust, he continued. “But you boy, there is something off about you. Your rate of improvement is something I cannot tolerate. It is unbefitting of a mere human.”

“Kaito…” Rina whispered, drawing Kaito’s attention. “There’s no way you can beat him alone. We need to get out of here. The exit’s open now that we’ve beaten the boss, so we can escape if we can just get past him.”

Heeding Rina’s instructions, Kaito slowly helped her up onto his shoulder.

“You’re obviously not going to fight like that, so you are planning on running,” the mysterious man successfully deduced.

“Tch, he saw right through us,” Rina quietly said, realizing they were in big trouble.

Kaito, also feeling their dire situation, came up with an idea. Kaito swiftly pushed Rina off the arena and into the tides below. Shocked by Kaito’s actions, Rina called out in confusion.

“Don’t worry, I can get by him on my own,” Kaito reassured Rina. “I’ll meet you at the capital!”

Kaito was now face-to-face with the man in black armor.

“You’re clearly more focused on me, so you won’t chase after her,” Kaito concluded.

The man responding to Kaito’s conclusion says, “I commend you for your bravery, but you will not make it out alive. Perish by the hands of Mauld.”