Chapter 198: Dungeon Exploration
With Lazuli having finished the contract in record time, I went with her to return it to the beautiful demon receptionist, who gladly took it to the back room, where she only exited after a few minutes while holding an Adventurer license that was nearly identical to the one I had. However, here came the awkward part: in order to link the license to yourself, you need to drop your blood on it, yet Lazuli is a cyborg, and the only part of her that wasn't robotic was her head and part of her spine.
"Here you go, just drop your blood on it, and you'll be good to go." Said the receptionist with a faint smile as she handed Alexander the license, causing him to nod with a friendly smile.
"Thank you for your assistance, Mam." Said Alexander lightly as he turned around and walked towards Yuki with Lazuli closely following him.
Sitting down beside Yuki, which prompted her to put her hand inside my pants as it calmly rested atop my manhood, I handed the license to Lazuli, who suddenly turned her finger into a small blade, causing me to widen my eyes as I instantly grab her hand while using [Heroes Gaze] to see all around me, only to sigh in relief when I noticed no one seemed to have noticed.
Sighing in relief, I deactivated the skill and glanced at Lazuli, who gave me a confused look, causing me to grab the bridge of my nose.
"Lazuli, you can't just do that; if people find you doing weird stuff like that, they'll cause you lots of problems." Said Alexander lightly as he glanced at Lazuli while tightly holding her hand, concealing her bladed finger.
"Problems can be dealt with." Remarked Lazuli calmly, her choice of words causing Alexander to wryly nod.
"Yes, problems can be dealt with, but the way I see it is that you'll kill the people causing the problems, and that'll only create larger problems, and so on and so forth. It's just not worth creating problems in the first place, Lazuli; it'll be too time-consuming to deal with all the future problems, and you won't even win in the end." Stated Alexander with a nod as he stared at Lazuli, who tilted her head before nodding, prompting him to release her hand, which has returned to normal.
"Listen, Lazuli, you're quite special, and people aren't really a fan of leaving something special alone, so to prevent people from discovering your special, observe what other people do and do that." Added Alexander with a small smile as he pointed at himself before waving his hand through the air, gesturing to the many people within the building.
Although Lazuli didn't say anything, she gave me a slight nod, causing me to faintly smile as I reached into my space pouch and grabbed a knife, yet before I could hand it to her, she suddenly punched me in the face, which thoroughly pissed off a certain someone, yet before she could make a scene, I grabbed her arms and pulled back down onto her seat.
"You can get mad in a second, Yuki." Stated Alexander softly as he gazed at the angry Yuki before turning and looking at Lazuli.
"So, care to explain why you punched me for no reason?" asked Alexander in annoyance as he stared at Lazuli, who tilted her head before pointing in a specific direction, causing Yuki and him to look.
As we looked where Lazuli was pointing, we saw three guys fighting each other while many cheered them on; such a sight was relatively common in the guild, so I didn't think much of it, but I see now where I messed up.
"Okay, that one's on me; I should've seen that coming. Yuki, don't be mad at her; this was my fault." Remarked Alexander lightly as he stared at the three men fighting while patting Yuki's arms, causing her to huff as her hand returned to resting just atop his manhood.
Seeing how this was my fault for not correctly explaining to Lazuli, I gave her more detailed instructions, such as not using violence unless someone uses it towards you first, simple things I shouldn't have missed, but I did.
'Well, I suppose it's better she hit me than someone else, not like it really hurt, but I feel like she's been constantly abusing me ever since we first met.' Thought Alexander lightly as he watched Lazuli slice her cheek before wiping it with her license, causing it to glow faintly while the letter F appeared within a square.
"Alright, you're finished, Lazuli; now you can enter the dungeon, Yuki, if you'd be so kind as to remove your hand from my crotch." Said Alexander with a smile as he gave Lazuli a thumbs-up while using his finger to gently wipe the blood off her small cut before glancing at Yuki, who slightly pouted before nodding.
Standing up from the table, I led the way while Yuki and Lazuli followed me from behind, which may have been a bad decision given their feelings for each other, but they were grown adults.
'Actually, now that I think about it, I don't even know how Lazuli feels about Yuki; after all, she did get two of her arms ripped off while fighting. I'd be pretty pissed with Yuki if I were her.' Mused Alexander with a thoughtful expression, rubbing his head while gazing at the sky as he took occasional glances behind him.
While thinking about random things, we quietly headed toward the center of the city, where the dungeon was located, and after several minutes of walking, we began to see it; however, unlike the one in Hyphen, which was partially emerging front the ground, causing it to look like a hill, this one was entirely flat with the rest of the ground.
"Hmm, well, that's new." Muttered Alexander softly as he gazed at the dungeon's entrance from a distance with Yuki, who nodded while Lazuli tilted her head.
Approaching the dungeon, there wasn't a line, so we headed straight for the front where the two Adventurers acting as guards stood; after we each showed our license, we were allowed into the dungeon, prompting us to walk forward as we took the stairs that spiraled downwards.
"They really could've used some torches right here; they're just asking for someone to trip." Said Alexander lightly as he walked down the stairs, Yuki and Lazuli following behind him.
After a minute of walking, we finally reached the end of the stairs and walked down a decently long hallway until it suddenly expanded in all directions, and no longer were the walls all smooth like before; now, it looked like a genuine cave.
"Be careful here, Lazuli; there are dangerous monsters here whose sole desire is to kill anything with a soul." Said Alexander as he looked around his surroundings before pulling Trina out from his stomach, wielding the large purple and black greatsword.
"Eh, Yuki, did you forget your shield?" Asked Alexander as he looked at Yuki, who was weaponless and was Lazuli, though one could say her body was a weapon in itself.
"Nope, I purposely left it at the Inn since I wanted to use… This!" Stated Yuki with a faint smile as she raised her forearm to the sky, only for an ethereal shield of mana to appear.
"Your mana shield? That's cool, but don't you think it's kind of small?" Asked Alexander with a raised eyebrow as he stepped forward and tapped the mana shield while glancing at Yuki.
"Small? Yeah, it is a little small, but I won't be able to make large shields unless I get better at using it." Remarked Yuki with a faint smile, her words causing Alexander to nod.
"True. Alright then, why don't you lead the way like always, Yuki." Muttered Alexander as he backed away and gestured in front of him, prompting Yuki to smile as she walked forth with a mana shield.
I had Lazuli follow right behind Yuki while I trailed behind her, sort of like a conga line, which wasn't the best formation to use, but since this was her first time in a dungeon, I wanted to make sure she was safe, and it didn't take long before we stumbled across our first victim. In the distance, we saw what looked like a humanoid made of pure stone, though given how large it was, it would be more appropriate to say it was Yuki size, except it only had two arms.
"He's mine!" Yelled Yuki enthusiastically as she dashed forward with her shield in front, yet before she could smash the monster to smithereens, a large gaping hole was suddenly blasted right through the chest, causing it to collapse onto the ground while turning into rubble.
"Enemy eliminated." Said Lazuli as she aimed her futuristic cannon-like arm at the decreased monster, prompting her arm to return to normal while Yuki shot her a glare.
"Y-You'll get the next one, Yuki; I'll make sure of it." Said Alexander softly while suppressing his laughter, causing Yuki to grunt as she turned around and headed deeper into the dungeon.
When we came across another monster, I quickly stopped Lazuli, who damn near attacked again, and allowed Yuki to charge into it with her shield; well, the result was about as much as I expected, so I wasn't shocked, but seeing her smash right through a large stone monster was kind of funny.
"Haha, that was wonderful!" Declared Yuki with a large smile as she stared at her mana shield with stars for eyes.