Starlight Necromancer

Chapter 124 - Some Good Data

"Goddammit, just get off me." Foster groaned, kicking down onto one of the mole-monsters. In response, the moel fell apart into nothingness, "Annoying ass monsters..." he let out. He had encountered a few larger groups of these monsters while running through this dungeon to try and find his party. They really were incredibly weak. He could defeat the small ones in a single punch, and the larger ones in two or three at most. There were simply many of them. But even then, they didn't really do much damage, so they were not a particular threat. Foster could compare them to... rats. Just regular old rats. They gathered in larger groups and attacked together. And while they could certainly do some damage if you didn't pay attention for a while, it was fairly easy to get rid of them, even then.

Foster did understand why these were supposedly easy for training, though. They were the perfect targets. They came from all directions, burrowing through the walls and ceilings. Since these moles could jump up pretty high as well, you could practice a large variety of different attacks on moving targets. The only thing that made them slightly annoying was that they didn't seem to want to leave Foster alone. He tried running past a group of them earlier, but they chased him for maybe five minutes without stop. It was nearly impressive, actaully. The only thing he could do was to kill them, though, otherwise simply too many of them would gather at some point. That seemed to be the greatest challenge of this and the next few floors.

"Hm? I think I can hear her..?" Foster muttered to himself. In the distance, he could hear the echo of a harp being played together with a harmonious humming, that sounded a lot like Kyla. With a grin on his face, he ran further into that direction. And as he thought, it didn't take long until he was able to spot his group, illuminated by the light glow of the torches placed on the walls by the organization taking care of this dungeon. They were placed throughout most of the recommended routes on these floors, apparently.

Seeing them, he slowed down, "Yoo, I'm back!" he yelled out loudly, waving his hand. Upon hearing Foster's voice echo out through cave's tunnel, the four people in front of him quickly turned around. Seeing that he returned, Lynol and Octer seemed quite relieved. Meanwhile, Kyla and Rae were clearly feeling something on the opposite side of the spectrum.

"Why the fuck did you just run off?! Are you a complete idiot, you little piece of-" Rae yelled out, walking toward him ready to rip him a new one. However, she was sort of taken aback by the broad grin on Foster's face. He was sweating a lot and breathing heavily, since he had been running for a while again, but it was clear that whatever he did was worth it to him. Seeing that this was the case, and that Foster was fine, she didn't really feel like yelling at him anymore. Kyla, on the other hand, did not share that sentiment.

"Answer her! Why did you just run off like that?!" She asked loudly, and Foster simply looked down at her. He smiled lightly, "That guy, the strategist, he had something from my old home with him. I just... felt like I had to talk to him about it." 

Kyla frowned. She could tell that Foster wasn't lying, but it seemed like she knew that he was also hiding something that was hidden beyond the bare truth that he had told. Foster was clearly trying to mislead her, even if he didn't technically lie, "...Fine. But don't just run off like that again, alright? So, what did you two talk about?"

"Ah, nothing special. Just... what happened after we left that place. He invited me to come over to the guild once they're done with their current dive so that we can talk some more." Foster explained, "And, he also hyped me up a lot. So, let's get started, alright?" 

"...about that, I'm not sure that will work. The floor is getting overfilled with people. We barely managed to encounter one group of moles." Octer pointed out, "We were planning on heading deeper into the dungeon for now."

"Hm... alright, then let's hurry it up." Foster replied, closing his fist tight enough to make his knuckles pop just from that.

--- 

"What did that guy want?" With a deep frown, Cain looked at Sam, who simply smiled back a little, "I told you, we were just talking a bit, alright? He didn't want anything."

"But I saw him give something to you." Cain replied instantly, making Sam stop in his track, "Right, he did. I told him that I can do some artificing, and he asked me to look at some toy his parents gave him or something. It broke some time ago, apparently, and he's been looking for someone to fix it." He said quickly, "I didn't feel like prying. It seemed like a sensitive topic."

"...Right." 

"Why do you care that much anyway? He's not going to steal me away, y'know?" Sam pointed out with a smirk, and Cain let out a deep groan, "Obviously, I know that. He's clearly just some weak beginner. But even then, he's a necromancer. It feels like he's up to something."

Sam quickly shook his head, "Seriously, he's not a threat or anything. He seems like a good guy to me. I invited him to the guild for once we're back, you can talk to him a bit then as well." 

Cain sighed, "Fine, if you say so. It's not like you're ever wrong anyway." He said, slowly turning around. Right then, a larger mole monster, similar in size to that one Foster had taken down, dug its way through the cave next to Sam and Cain. Of course, neither of them really cared at all, or even reacted.

They both simply walked forward. The moment that the mole tried to attack Cain, the one standing closest to it, it simply disappeared, as if blinking out of existence. Sam rolled his eyes, looking at the cave wall that had been painted red for just an instant, as the mole was practically disintegrated through a single instantaneous attack, "You say that, but you seem a bit annoyed, even then." Sam said, pulling out his phone to note the appearance of another monster into his app, as if this was normal.

"What do you expect? We have to drag all those weaklings with us. We could get to floor fifty and back in a week with just us three."

"Right, but we have to take the time to train them all up, don't we? We can't have the high-rankers of our guild stay that weak forever. They've got to be able to do some odd jobs, at least." Sam replied with a sigh, "And beyond that, we need some numbers for the puzzle on floor 49. Last time, everyone else died, and we couldn't do it. Just don't let them die this time like last time, alright?"

"Tsk. Not my fault they couldn't take care of a single mob." Cain clicked his tongue, "And it's not like you did anything to stop them from dying either. I'm just your right hand man, you're the Guild Master. If anything, you should have helped out."

"Well, fair enough.. At least it made for some good data, huh?" Sam chuckled, walking back over toward the group of people waiting for them, all the whilst pushing his phone back into his pocket.