“Shall I go in first?” Akari offered.
“Yeah, please. Lilith, go with her.”
“Kee-hee!”
Akari, with her sharp detection abilities, and Lilith, who could see in the dark, made the perfect team for cave exploration. Carro, Fau, and I followed behind them, and Sakura and Bear Bear brought up the rear.
“Oh, one more thing... I summon the Demonic Ghost!”
“Ooo-oooh.”
“We’re exploring a cave right now. Can you help keep an eye out for enemies?”
“Oooh!”
The Demonic Ghost had no problem maneuvering in the dark, and she could pass through objects and people, which meant she could move around in this cramped space without getting in anyone else’s way. Whether we were attacked from the front or from behind, she could swiftly head in either direction to offer support. She was the ideal middle guard.
“I wonder if it’s a bad idea to use Wail here, since we’re in a cave. It’d probably echo like crazy. I guess we should test it out first.”
“Oooh?”
If the Demonic Ghost unleashed a piercing scream right next to me, it might burst my eardrums. If I remembered right, hearing loss was a possible status ailment in the game. I had never experienced it myself, so it must take something more than any ordinary loud sound to be affected by it, but it didn’t hurt to be careful. It was best to test it out first.
As we stayed on guard for any possible surprise monster attacks, we stepped into a passageway that led further into the cave. The area didn’t offer anything new or unusual, though. It was just a normal cave, like any other that could be found in the game. There were numerous stalactites hanging down from the ceiling, and the ground under our feet was damp. It was difficult to walk, but not enough so that it would be impossible for us to fight in here, and the passageway was wide enough for three people to walk side by side.
There were gathering and mining nodes along the way, so we were able to obtain a lot of items from those. We didn’t find anything remarkable, but since it was hard to find mushrooms and plants in the Great Wilderness, I was just glad to find some readily available here. They were also of a pretty high quality.
“Aye-aye!”
“Oh, these are the mushrooms we need to deliver.”
I already had a stock of them in my inventory, but I had decided not to use them to immediately clear the quest. I wanted to see the cave’s main gathering spot, as I had a hunch that some sort of development would occur if I went there.
While I was gathering mushrooms at the gathering node Fau spotted, Akari raised a warning cry.
“Monsters!”
“Here we go!”
I followed Akari’s line of sight and saw a large bat, a black rat, and a rolling sphere the size of a basketball that had some sort of black haze rising from it. The first two creatures were recognizable as the Black Bat and Dark Rat we had to defeat for our quests. As for that ball, was that the Dark Bug?
“Let’s take down two of them first, and then I’ll try using Wail on the last one.”
“Got it!”
And so the fight began. These cave monsters were pretty tough. They might have been even higher leveled than monsters in the Great Wilderness.
“Skreech skreech!”
“Agh! Damn it!”
The Black Bat was fast as hell! And it took out twenty percent of my HP with just a graze!
“Squeak squeak!”
“...!”
“Kee-hee-hee!”
The Dark Rat was also very quick on its feet, so we weren’t able to get a clean hit on it. It evaded Sakura’s whip and blocked Lilith’s spear with its incisors.
But the most troublesome of all of them was the Dark Bug.
“What?! It can go up walls?!”
“Kree kree kree!”
“Aye!”
“Fau!”
The Dark Bug, which looked like a pill bug, moved by rolling around at a high speed, allowing it to move up the walls and onto the ceiling of the cave. Its body-slam attack was incredibly powerful, and it was even capable of using Dark Magic.
Even though we were only up against three monsters, they were completely steamrolling us. If Akari hadn’t been here, we would have been in really deep trouble.
“Hyaaah!”
“Growl growl!”
“Aqua Ball!”
Akari was able to land blows on the enemies from her position in the front line. With her slowing them down, the rest of us were able to start hitting them with attacks too.
“Phew,” I breathed. “We managed to beat the bat and the Dark Bug.”
“Now all that’s left is the Dark Rat! Are you going to try using that attack?”
“Yeah. I need to know if you can use it inside here. Demonic Ghost! Use Wail!”
The Demonic Ghost looked happy to hear my command. She eagerly moved towards the front of our formation and opened her mouth wide.
“AAAAAAHHH!”
Ow, my ears! That was deafening! I checked my status and, as I had feared, I had been inflicted with Hearing Loss. Thankfully, it went away after a few seconds. Akari had also been able to protect herself by covering her ears, so it didn’t seem like the ghost’s wailing had that severe of an effect on hearing, at least.
“I think it’s safe to say I can keep using this going forward.”
“Yes, I think so too,” Akari agreed. “It was even able to paralyze the Dark Rat.”
The chance of being affected by any one of Wail’s status ailments was calculated individually, so unless the target had perfect resistance to everything, there was a good chance at least one would stick. It was a skill useful even in an area with much stronger enemies.
“Okay then, let’s keep moving!” Akari said.
“R-Right.”
Honestly, if I were on my own, this would have been the part where I turned back. But we would be fine with Akari here. I just had to hustle so that I didn’t hold her back.
The village’s cave system was less complex than I had been expecting. We only ran into a fork in the path a few times, and the routes seemed to converge back together again anyway.
If we took into account the items we gathered and experience we earned, this area wasn’t really the best hunting grounds for us. The monsters were too strong. Personally, I thought the area would be just barely doable for even a party made up of players who were all on Akari’s level. We were only really able to push our way through because we had stocked up on enough recovery items.
After three hours of exploration, we made it to what appeared to be the innermost part of the cave.
“We’ve mapped the entire cave. All that’s left is what’s past those doors,” Akari said.
“Seems like it. Should we head in?”
“Let’s do it! We have this just in case!”
Akari took out an item from her inventory. It was a small orb that glowed with a mystical blue light. The item was called a Super Escape Orb. When used, it allowed players to escape from a dungeon. It was an upgraded version of an Escape Orb that had recently become more widely available.
What made it “super” was the fact that it could be used even in the middle of a boss fight. That meant you could challenge the boss to gauge how strong it was, and if it looked like you were going to lose, you could escape with the orb.
There was no penalty for respawning with one of these, and it allowed you to gather information about a boss. There were some restrictions, though, like not being able to use it during raid boss battles, but it was still a nifty item. Personally, I didn’t think I would use one myself. Why? Because it was very expensive. They were sold in the Zone Ten cities, but a single orb cost 500,000 G. It was actually more economical to just take the death penalty.
However, we had gotten some great items from loot boxes, so we decided to use the orb this time around. We could have left this area to put the items away, but that would take up too much time.