Core of Knowledge

“Two minutes! Everyone to the shore!”

Crytalis heard Bran’s shout, and immediately stood up. The Forevers had bought the report from the Adventurer Guild and came into the Lake Room with a plan.

The Forevers would attempt the puzzles, but if no one managed to complete them, everyone would abandon the puzzles in the last two minutes and group up at the shore to prepare for the fight against the Boss. They were not going to be caught out like the exploration team did. Like a famous human [General] once said, no plan survived contact with the enemy.

“I’m almost done!”

Surprised, Crytalis looked over at Lukalla’s pavilion and saw that his fellow elf was still trying to complete her puzzle. That was not part of the plan.

“Get your small elvish butt to the end of the floor!”

Bran’s shout would have shaken mountains, but Lukalla did not seem to hear him. It was as if she was in a world of her own. Crytalis had no choice but to ignore her.

[Hunter] and elf, Crytalis easily reached the shore before the others. He turned and saw that Lukalla was still at her puzzle. Saverio was the second to arrive and he too saw that their [Wizard] was still at her pavilion.

“Should we go get her?” He asked.

“No,” Crytalis immediately rejected the human’s idea. “We follow the plan. She made her decision.”

For a moment, it looked like the [Thief] would object, but the moment passed, and the human only sighed in resignation. Crytalis looked around the area where they would be making their stand and noted that it was different from the report. According to the Guild report, this should be a rocky shore, but the dungeon core made some renovations. It was now an open field with growing grass and a few trees. Crytalis just hope the dungeon core did not add in any other surprises along with the trees. He heard Bran well before the dwarf arrived.

“Stupid idiotic elf! Crazy female! Moronic elvish maiden! Elf, your people need to control your females better!” Their dwarven leader was huffing and cursing at the same time. Crytalis just smiled and gave him a shrug that practically screamed ‘what can you do’.

Elves and dwarves have a long history of mutual dislike, and one of the greatest differences between the two species was the way they treated their women. Elven women had great freedom in how they wished to live their life, but dwarven culture was different. Dwarven women were considered precious and important, more precious and important than dwarven men, and the dwarven instinct with precious things was to lock them away. Dwarven women were highly controlled and they were not allowed to work in dangerous jobs. Miners, Soldiers, and Adventurers were just some of the occupations dwarven women were not allowed to be in. Even Classed women were not exempted from this. Crytalis had only ever seen two female dwarven adventurers in his life, and both were exiles.

“I got it!”

The shout from their [Wizard] caused everyone to look over. Lukalla’s pavilion was glowing, but more importantly, he could see his follow elf celebrating with her arms high in the air. It was too much for their leader.

“Stop celebrating, you stupid woman! Get your tiny ass over here!” Bran screamed.

Lukalla immediately picked up her staff and began running. Her speed was impressive, and Crytalis believed the [Wizard] may have cast a spell to increase it.

“One of us completed the puzzle, maybe that’s enough for the dungeon.” Saverio said hopefully as they waited, a hope Bran was more than happy to crush.

“We don’t know that. We don’t know anything, so we are not going to assume anything. Be ready for-.”

A loud sound echoed in the room as something jumped out of the water. Crytalis’ hands moved, an arrow was on his bow, and he released it before his mind could catch up to his practised movement. The arrow streaked across the room towards Lukalla and hit the creature attacking her. Crytalis heard a screech and the creature splashed back into the lake.

“Don’t stop! Keep running, you fool!”

Bran shouted and Lukalla immediately resumed her sprint towards her party. Crytalis looked at the surface of the lake and placed another arrow at the ready.

“Anyone has a good look at the thing?” Bran asked as he took a position at the front of the party.

“Looked like some sort of lizard,” Saverio replied, “blue, with feet and a long tail.”

Crytalis saw the same thing as well, more importantly, he understood what that meant. “If the monster has feet, it means they can come on land. Looks like we are in for a battle.”

With her speed and spells, Lukalla soon reached them, and Bran grunted in response. The [Wizard] was too happy to be brought down by the dwarf.

“Oh, don’t be such a grumpy dwarf. I succeeded!” She hugged Bran, and Crytalis could see the slightest twitch of a smile on the dwarf’s face.

“When we get back to town, we are going to have a talk about following the plan.” Bran grumbled as the [Wizard] released him to take her position at the back of the party.

“Hey, it worked! I got it done.”

Lukalla’s light reply caused Bran to grunt again. Crytalis could only shake his head. He wished the two would get a room, spend a night together and get it over with. Moments passed, and the lake was quiet. Then, the surface of the lake moved.

“Wait till they get out of the water.” Bran said.

Crytalis pulled his arrow back and looked on as several creatures walked out of the lake. Like Saverio said, they were lizards. The monsters were between one to two metres long, with drooping scales, a slender lizard-like body, and a long tail. Their four short legs let them climb onto land with ease, and they had a face that resembled that of a cat. There were ten of them, and when the monsters opened their mouths, Crytalis could see saliva dripping from their sharp teeth. His [Hunter] instinct immediately warned him of the danger.

“Be careful. I think their bite is venomous.”

“Good thing we stocked up on antidotes then.” Saverio laughed.

“Yeah, let them have it.”

With Bran’s order, Crytalis immediately took aim and shot at one of the monsters. The arrow flew, penetrated the body of the monster with ease, and it dropped dead. Everyone stopped. For a moment, everyone looked at the dead monster in disbelief.

That was too easy.