Chapter 20: Third Floor Fight

Turns out, they had missed the whole Second floor. While they were fighting for their lives against the stone monkey, everyone else had been capturing points and fighting some lizard king. When the trio arrived, almost everyone had moved downstairs. It also turned out that in order to use the keys to open the third boss door, everyone who stepped into the dungeon had to be there, also, Alice had the second key for some reason. The keys to the third floor were given to an adventurer at random, the first one had gone to Ruis, while the second had gone to Alice. The others made way for her as she made her way to the front, where Ruis stood waiting, looking like an ass, as usual. He examined her before his eyes fell on her badge, his expression changed to a visible look of annoyance, before he clicked his tongue and turned around. Alice very much wanted to hit him, but she didn't. Deciding to spare him, she fishes out the second key and inserts it into the slot. They would turn it at the same time, causing the large door to glow before it shifted open. Ruis held Alice back as the others headed in, and since Alice stayed back, Selia and Lucy did too.

" What are you doing here?" He asked, almost like he knew her,

" A bronze in a 7-star dungeon, you might as well have stayed home. Try not to get in the way," He said rather rudely, but he was right. Alice waited until he had fully left before entering the boss room. " Now I know why I don't like him," Lucy said. " He's the Dragon King's third son. I never liked any of them," he explained. " Also, try not to use the power of the stars, unless you absolutely need to," Odd request, but Alice understood. The fight had started when they entered, and a lot of people had already been beaten back. The final floor boss was a giant magma creature, perfect for the son of a guy who controls water. Its name was Red, a level 190 magma tomb. Alice joined Lucy in taking a seat and watching, " Aren't you guys gonna help?" Selia asked,

" I could, but I need to recover some energy from the fight from before, plus Mister Third Prince over there has this handled. Join us, you also need to recover some of your magic," Alice patted the floor next to her. She glanced back before letting out a sigh and joining them. As they watched, Alice answered any question Selia might have for her,

" What was that power you used back there?"

" The Stars, it was my first time using it, so I'm not too sure either."

" The Stone monkey we fought, it was the shell of the Great Sage, and Lucy is the morningstar?"

"Yes and yes, Lucy is Lucifer Morningstar, though he's good now, so don't worry. But still keep it to yourself about who he really is." This went on for a while, as did the fight. Despite being a hunter, Ruis took his time. He thrust his hands towards the beast as multiple large magic circles formed behind him, tentacles of water burst forth and held the magma golem in place as steam sprouts from its body. A spear formed in his hand as he thrusted it at the creature's center. The second it made contact, it blew a hole wide into it, the spear floating back to Ruis' hand. The water tentacles dispersed as the golem dropped. Everyone cheered as Ruis stood triumphant.

"It's not over," Lucy said, getting up and walking forward. A look of concern overtook his face, which concerned her. Just then, the golem's body began trembling, " GET AWAY FROM IT, NOW!" Lucy yelled as a burst of heat pushed everyone close away. A pile of steam followed. Ruis, with a powerful sweep of his spear, removed the steam to find that the golem was gone. Next to Lucy was a humanoid being, much like the stone monkey, only this one was more human, with cracks filled in with magma. It slammed its fist into his face as it launched him hard and fast into the wall. Both Alice and Ruis were able to get to it, their weapons mid swing, when it simply caught them. It rotated its arms and threw them both away. As if locked onto Lucy, it strided towards him, who was getting up from the attack, unharmed. If this kept up, he would have to fight back at some point. Alice needed to get rid of it. The problem? It was a dark red name, level unknown. Ruis was already next to the thing, his arms and face had blue scales, two horns sprouted from his forehead. He thrust his spear quickly, the thing dodging each one until one finally hit. This one hit allowed Alice's system to register its name: Avatar of the Hell King. Ruis jumped back as the King swiped his hand. Ruis stumbled back as the King closed the distance. Before it could strike, an arrow slammed into its head, causing it to flinch. Selia stood her ground, mega bow drawn, she continued to fire, the King held his hand out to block the blows, but ignored her. Alice triggered Hunters Surge and pushed in. She threw her blade, causing it to lean back so the blade sailed past, allowing her to lock it in place with ice spikes, though her original intent was to have them pierce through his skin. Its rock skin was tougher than she had thought. All it took was to move around for the ice to break, it was an unknown level, of course it did. Lucy told her not to use the stars, but in this situation, it would mean death. She dashed back and thrust her hand upward, but the King saw through her. The draw time for calling on a star was about 13 seconds, too long. A dragon made of water slammed into the King and raised it off the ground, steam emitted from it as the water bubbled before bursting. Rain fell around them as the King stood high in the air. Its eyes examined all of them as it dropped to the ground, it was bored. The way it looked at them, how it targeted Lucy before anyone else. It deemed them too weak to take seriously, but it knew Lucy would. She backed up to Ruis. Despite her reluctance, she needed to team up with him. " How many of those water dragons can you make?"

" As many as I want,"

" Good, make them, I got something in mind," she decided to overlook his glaring and stepped away to let him do his thing. More magic circles appeared along with the water dragons, Alice focused. She could feel the magic in the circles above. Carefully, she applied her own into it, turning the water into ice dragons. The long, oversized reptiles glided through the air before they attacked the King. Thanks to the base layer of water provided by Ruis, the dragons were strong enough to take a couple of hits before either breaking or getting chipped. When that happened all they had to do was channel more magic into the circle so that the wound would fix itself, " I have to admit, this is smart," Ruis admitted, Alice would've said something back but she was too focused on trying to summon her star, Ruis looked at her confused, it looked like she was raising her hand to ask the teacher a question. This was going nowhere, so she decided to stick with her sword until she could call upon the star. A powerful amount of energy burst through the room, its point of origin was Selia, or to be precise, it was Lucy channelling his power into Selia. This got the King's attention, he crushed the last Ice dragon under his foot before it dashed for them. " Divine Heavens series, bow arts second form: Swarm!" Selia shouted as her arrow glowed ten times stronger, it launched with an even greater force as it split into multiple arrows, but she wasn't done yet. Followed by swarm, she launched the first form, Pierce. Alice used this chance to summon her star, this time, it worked. Bursting down from the ceiling and into her hand, she changed the ball of light into a blade. The King seemed to want to take this fight more seriously now. Alice charged in, with the addition of the star, she was now able to perceive the level of the King, which was 280. The Starblade was inflicting damage whenever it hit, it either bruised or left a small cut. But she needed more. She pushed herself more, getting up close and personal before unleashing a point-blank rupture. Alice infused her hand with ice, forcing it to fuse with her Starblade. A water dragon held the King down, " End this already!" Ruis yelled, clearly strained from holding the dragon from bursting. In one swing, she cleaved the King in half, the cut halves cooling down thanks to the frost. The glow of the King's body died as its body properly fell apart. This time, she knew it was over.

-DUNGEON BOSS CLEARED-

-LEVEL UP-

Her grip on the Starblade would drop again as she collapsed to the floor once again. She'd have to get used to wielding that blade, for now, she wanted to go home. Ruis approached her, forcing her to sit up to talk to him, how bothersome. " You did well, bronze. Or whatever your real rank is, Ms. false ranker," was all he had to say before leaving. This time, it was Lucy and Selia who joined her. There was one last thing she needed to do before they left. She pushed herself up and walked to the pillar in the center. Though it was faint, it glowed when she got close. During the fight, she felt something pulling at her, not physically, it was more like something was nagging at her soul. When she placed her hand on the pillar, it shook as the rocks covering it crumbled away, revealing a golden staff. " Huh, so this is where it was," Lucy said in awe. The staff shrank down to a more proper size, leaving a hole in the ceiling. Alice let it drop to the floor, and when it hit, it shattered the ground around it. " Ha! It seems he left the staff to you but forgot that only he could pick up something so damn heavy!" Lucy laughed, Alice crouched down and placed her hands on the ground next to the staff. She planned on using the same method to put it into her inventory as she did with the voidcores, and it worked. It fell into her pocket space, and somehow, her inventory shook. With that, she was ready to go home.

" How quickly can you get us home if you flew?" Alice is in no mood to wait for everyone here to get back to the teleporter. Not when she could just have Lucy fly her back. His response was to pick her up, but he also picked up Selia, who, to the unexpected action, let out a yelp as Lucy ran back to the entrance of the dungeon. Once they reached the outside, he took off. Selia looked visibly frightened, which was fair. It was well into the night when they had come out, and the moon was quarter visible. When they reached Cleo's home, they found that she was still away at her internship. Just for tonight, Alice allowed Selia and Lucy to stay. She gave Lucy a spare blanket and gave him the couch. Selia would have to share Cleo's bed with Alice. She decided to wash up in the morning and went straight to sleep.

Alice woke well rested. She took a nice, long shower. " Good Morning!" Selia had woken an hour before she had and made everyone breakfast. Lucy was obviously awake and eating. After eating, she headed straight to the blacksmith store to give an order. " Welcome back!" the smithing lady from before said with a smile. When Alice placed a handful of voidcores on the counter, the smithing lady's smile turned nuclear.

" So this is where you went, quite a rare material." She examined the pieces in her hand, " Come back in a few weeks. Is there any way I should send a message to when I need to reach you?" Alice gave her Clairs named, and paid in advance, with Yrvs and a couple of extra voidcores for her own purposes. Next up was Clair herself,

" Welcome back. I assume the search went well?" Clair asked, setting down a paper. Alice explained everything that had happened.

" Cleo won't be back till next month. For now, you should focus on training with your new power," Clair suggested. Alice headed back home. If she were to train, she knew just the person to ask for help.

" You want me to train you till your friend gets back?" Lucy restated what she had asked. He was currently lying on the couch, browsing the TV channels. Selia was seated on the other couch, polishing her bow.

" You can come with us, it'll be good training for you as well," Selia looked up, surprised, but she nodded, accepting Alice's invite. Lucy let out a heavy sigh, a good sign that he's given in, " If we're gonna train, we can use an old cave I know about. We'll be unbothered by anyone, so it makes for a great spot to train. We can head out tonight." Lucy said. Secluded training with a transcendant master, cool.

-MAIN OBJECTIVE-

Reach Level 900

REACH DIAMOND RANK IN 5 MONTHS AND HAVE ARTHUR JOIN YOUR TEAM

CLEAR THE LABYRINTH DUNGEON

FLOOR BOSSES KILLED(3/3)

THE STARS BECKON YOU, ANSWER

-SIDE OBJECTIVES-

PROFILE: ALICE

LEVEL 61

ATK:223

SPD:227

DEF:225

STAM:225

MANA:215

INT:208

BLESSED: 40

(available stat points: 200)