“Begone!” Cain screamed, his hands were busy trowing Alice and Sofia backward so he used his mouth to unleash [Firelance], [Enchanting], [Enchanting]. The second Alpha gator has already closed its jaw so the spell exploded on its scaly face.
“What-gaw!” Selena wasn’t able to detect the Alpha gator approaching, If it wasn’t for the sudden change in Cain’s face she wouldn’t be able to dodge.
“Despite being so large, their stealth abilities are damn high, especially in the dark!” Cain stated asked he distanced himself from the monsters. “Take those two to a safer place, I will deal with this one!” Cain yelled, he didn’t have time to think as the Alpha gator was already charging.
‘It’s a male, unlike the female it’s a bit smaller but faster and more aggressive.’ Cain thought as he dodged a second bite, the gator didn’t show any signs of slowing down.
[Firelance] Cain aimed for its eyes as he did with the female before, the gators were used to the dark so they always head straight for the light, it shouldn’t be able to dodge it.
The alpha gator took the spear head-first, he wasn’t blinded thanks to him closing his eyes in the last moments, those scaly eyelids were something.
[Mist step] Cain instantly teleported to the gator’s back, he has already switched into his two daggers. [Frostbite], [Frostbite] freezing the gator’s back, those things weren’t that accustomed to cold, this should slow him down a bit.
[Scorching rays] Sofia took the chance and burned the gator’s eyes, “That’s hurt, Cain!” She screamed, her head throbbing.
“Sorry, didn’t have much time to think, otherwise you will be dead!” Cain replied, he didn’t mean pulling them by the hair, it was just faster than anything else that time.
[Cursed Decay] Alice used her magic as they were alone, Causing the gator’s burned eyes to fester more, “Sofia, stop whining, leave the crying for when we’re done with this thing!” Alice yelled, quickly supporting Sofia.
Selena’s claws and fangs aren’t useful against such a monster so he resorted to punching its jaw, her knuckle duster helped her against the gator’s hard bones. “Die-gaw!”
Cain took the chance to swiftly finish the Alpha gator, as soon as they had him stoop moving it was done. The monster’s brain was fried like the last one.
[You have leveled up]
Cain hadn’t heard this message in a while and he wasn’t expecting to see it this soon!
—————————————-
[Enchanting]
[Firebolt]
[Fireblade]
[Burning hands]
[Bonfire]
[Message]
[Frostbite]
[Lightning grasp]
[Lesser healing]
[Lesser Empowerment]
[Swiftness]
[Short invisibility]
[Marlin’s floating platform]
[Soundless]
[Mist step]
[Darkvision]
[Firelance]
[Scorching Rays]
—————————————-
He could finally have access to their tier magic, there wasn’t a doubt about it, he was getting stronger!
“Is it dead?” Sofia poked it with her staff.
“It is, we can take a short rest if you’re exhausted.” Cain replied, he wanted to revise his strategy as having two Alpha gators was dangerous.
“You can just say if you’re exhausted, you don’t need to cover it up with me.” Sofia replied as naturally as she breathed.
“Guh! Fine, lets have a rest, I want to rethink how we should proceed.” Cain was caught off guard with her sharp reply.
With a smile, the girls set up a make shift camp around a torch. There wasn’t any wood to burn down there.
The camp was just a blanket for them to sit and some water and bread to munch on, Sofia was also hiding some grilled meat from the morning.
The four of them enjoyed a quick meal as they chatted. Alice found it a suitable time to brag how she didn’t mind Cain pulling her hair earlier say it didn’t hurt much. Cain gently pointed out that her sense of pain must be off, suggesting she keep an eye on herself in case she got any minor injury.
Selena just laid her head on Cain lap and started purring, taking short naps like that seemed to be natural for her.
Sofia on the other hand took her time resting and scolding Cain about pulling her hair like that. Cain teased her asking if he could pull her hair again like that, surprisingly she accepted, she just made it was sudden and that’s all.
After finishing their short rest, Cain had already concluded that the mine was more dangerous than he expected. Separating was out off the window, fighting as a group was their only way.
Proceeding even deeper in the cave they quickly meat another kind of monster that Cain didn’t expect to see. Giant worm’s hole were everywhere making it easy to fall in one of them.
Giant worms were about 6 feet long and half a foot in width, not that big but when you have a lot of the digging holes everywhere the ground becomes weak and prone to collapsing. As a monsters they weren’t that strong but they could make underground area extremely dangerous.
“Proceed with caution, the worms won’t attack us but the ground might collapse.” Cain warned them, they need to walk carefully and avoid any spots that seems to be too weak.
“I hate this feeling, we can’t fight well in a place like this.” Sofia noted, she was right as fighting here was almost impossible without casing a collapse. Yet that also applied to other monsters, all they needed to was hit the ground underneath them with a strong enough spell and the monster would just sink into the ground!
“Even in the case of a collapse, [Marlin’s floating platform] would help us stay safe.” Cain assured her, the spell he mentioned was the same one he used when transforming Alice. The girls didn’t seem to know about it, Cain just never told them, Alice just remembered the platform she woke on.
Taking his time he explained how the spell worked, It will create a platform to support a certain amount of weight. The amount is determined by how muck MP he push through the spell. The ration was a 1 MP for each 1 Kg making it extremely costly to use.
After a long stride, they finally passed the worms area. The girls were delighted to hear that they didn’t need to move on the tips of their toes anymore, it has started to hurt.
“Cain, can you make one for me? Like you did with Sofia.” Alice asked, It was apparent on her face. Cain called a break.
Just like with Sofia, he made a makeshift toilet for Alice to use. He was surprised she asked for it. “How come? I didn’t think you will actually ask for it!” Cain asked, looking at her with a suspicious look.
“Don’t look at me like that, I don’t want to do it in a corner just for a lizard to sneak on us.” Alice feared a third Alpha gator would attack, her fears wasn’t misplaced yet Cain couldn’t expect that third one to exist. Those two were probably mates and that why they lived close to each other like that.
Without knowing it, Cain’s toilet has already served the three of them. It was better to use it when they have time so Cain did it as well. What followed was a short rest as the slow walk had worn their legs down.
“Cain, what do you think we will face next? I feel like we spend quite some time down here.” Sofia voiced her concerns.
“You’re right, I guess it might be almost dark outside. It seems we might have to spend the night down here.” Cain said, It wasn’t strange to camp inside caves and dungeons for him, but to the girls it was alien.
“Wouldn’t we be attacked? We’re in the monsters territory!” Alice said, looking around to the dark cave.
“She is right-nya, I don’t feel like I could get a good rest-nya!” Selena was with Alice, down here her senses would prevent her from having a restful sleep.
“Don’t worry, I could make us a comfortable camp, all we need to do after that is take shifts guarding!” Cain stood up to start preparing the camp as that area seemed calm enough.
[Earth wall] to block off all the cave passages and encasing them in a single large room, with this their smell won’t reach the monster nor they can see the light.
breath able air was also a problem so they had to turn put out the torches, Cain instead used [Enchanting: light] to illuminate the place, borrowing Sofia’s rings so he can keep all the magic Active.
Setting the blankets on the ground was simple enough and they had a nice camp, the girls were impressed at how it had turned out.
This was just the begging of the night, Cain had a lot of surprises waiting for him.