The little boy kept pointing at the building and when it didnât look like Godfrey would understand anytime soon, he grabbed Godfrey by the arm, leading him toward the building.
"Stop." Godfrey held the boyâs shoulder and squatted. "I canât take you into a dungeon. Iâll fetch what you lost there but you remain out here. Donât take a step in there. Deal?"
The little boy nodded.
Seeing this, Godfrey smiled a bit behind his mask. âItâs quite late, I wonder where your parents are. Or are they the ones in there?!â His eyes gleamed at the thought of that.
That would explain why a little boy would be out here at this hour.
Upon rising to his feet, Godfrey looked at a dark alley. Golden light lit up in there and something came out, but blended into the darkness.
With that done, Godfrey walked into the abandoned skyscraper. Not long after he was gone, three men walked into the lonely street.
The biggest amongst them was held up by the other two men, a sign that they got into a fight and lost miserably.
As they got closer to the boy, the big manâs eyebrow rose. "Isnât that the son of that beautiful Russian woman who moved in two months ago?"
His friends looked at the boy. "She never lets that boy out of her sight. Whatâs he doing outside by this hour?" One of them asked.
"Who cares? This is an opportunity to get close to that woman. She must be scared and out there searching for her little boy or oblivious. Regardless, imagine how she would react once I bring her boy?"
The big man shrugged off his friends and approached the little boy. The stench of alcohol forced the boyâs face to squeeze.
"Lost?" The big man asked, looking at the boy like he was some prize. That gaze made the little boy shrink back.
"Come, Iâll take you home to your mother." He stretched his hand and grabbed the boyâs tiny arm.
Just then, his eyes shrank as something came out from the alley. It was fast, all the big man saw was a golden blur. In the next moment, a towering knight loomed above him, the edge of his longsword a hairâs breadth away from the big manâs neck.
The big manâs friends had wide eyes and even wider mouths as their faces paled. They slowly moved backwards.
"I wonât let you hurt the boy!" The big man bellowed as a portal appeared and a huge crocodile lunged at Mountain.
Mountain tilted to the side, narrowly evading the crocodile before launching a kick that sent the huge beast through a building.
The big manâs eyes shrunk greatly as Mountain grabbed his face, the knightâs large gauntleted hand easily wrapping around his head.
At the sight of this, his friends fled for their lives. "Is that the little boyâs summon?"
"Seems like it."
Their hearts almost left them when Mountain burst out of the earth. That was the crocodileâs innate skill. It could move through the earth without being noticed despite its size.
Both men fell as Mountain aimed his sword at them. "S... Speak and you will die."
"My lips are sealed. I swear!" One of them bellowed while the other fainted out of shock. The summon could speak? Was it really a summon or a huge man in armour?
***
On the other hand, Godfrey stood in an area with lots of rock formations.
He perched on a tall formation, watching Dirge in her banshee form flying over lots of formations before landing. The moment her ironclad boots touched the hard floor, several red-eyed drake-like creatures with bulging sacks at their necks charged toward her from all sides.
Their sacks swelled and they spat balls of flames like ancient catapults. Dirge, whose tier rose to 14.5 in Black-Out State, lifted up her staff.
She had stored her screams in this staff and at her will, multiple banshee screams unleashed as one. The shrill scream was accompanied by a catastrophic sight.
It was like an atomic air bomb set off. This rock formation forest that spanned a mile shattered. A fierce wind swept everything outwardly and Dirge opened her mouth at that moment and screamed.
Black miasma burst out of her. Her skin darkened, her eyes became ghostly as she stretched out both arms, draining the life out of the beasts.
When the scream stopped, Dirge deactivated her banshee form. She stood alone in an expanse that was once populated by rock formations and fire-spitting beasts.
A great roar rang and a thirteen-foot-tall beast, the same like the others but much bigger, rose up. It was like a huge boulder amongst the rock formations before but now the formations were gone, this massive beast couldnât hide anymore.
It had two protruding horns, a head like that of a bull, scales all over and a crimson sac at its throat that glowed as it bulged. It also had an orb chained at the back.
Dirge stretched forth her hand and darkness spread out from beneath her feet. Her shadows rose up from it. Her chief shadow, the gorilla, leaped, punching the boss right in the face.
The blow forced its head to tilt downward and smoke burst out of its mouth as the fireball exploded.
Dirgeâs other chief shadow launched a powerful, pressurised beam from its golden third eye and it split the boss into two parts.
âI didnât see the boyâs mother.â Godfrey thought but that thought vanished the moment he saw a door of light appear in the distance.
Was this real? He was in the Tower-Type Green Gate dungeon?! A very rare kind of dungeon with several floors, each floor having a boss with a dungeon core!
This was a crazy advantage. He could get several dungeon cores from one dungeon! But the risk was also real. He didnât know how many floors this dungeon had.
Each floor had stronger monsters and stronger bosses. If he couldnât kill all of them, it was over.
There was no means to go back. This meant, he would either come out of this dungeon much stronger than ever or lose his life.
Godfrey sighed. "Itâs not like I could go back even if I wanted." He received the core from Dirge and lifted an eyebrow.
This was a 13.8 Throne-Tier core. Lysander was 15.0 Saint Tier, Dirge 14.0 Throne Tier, already her peak. Lament 12.5 King Tier, also at his peak. Tempest 12.3 King Tier with room to get stronger.
Ballista and Mountain werenât here. Who would he choose?
...
A/N: Iâm done with my exam.