Return to Jorgaldur Volume II: the druid archer

Dungeon fourth floor (I)

"It's strange. I detect something, but scattered," the elf explained.

They had just reached the fourth floor. As always, and as a precaution, she had relied on Life Detection to investigate the surroundings, but the result had been somewhat confusing.

"Let's go see it," suggested her sister.

Goldmi didn't disagree. At one point or another they should face whatever was on that floor.

"Insects?" the lynx suddenly wondered.

Her hearing was sharper, and she had heard something like a lot of buzzing. They soon discovered that she wasn't mistaken. A cloud of small insects could be seen a little further, something that shouldn't be there, because, with few exceptions, there shouldn't be living beings inhabiting the dungeon, only mana beings.

"Swarm!" exclaimed the archer.

That was the name given in the game to this type of entity, made up of a multitude of small insect-like beings. They were in fact similar to a swarm of insects, although, unlike these, they formed a unique entity, so that their members couldn't move more than a few meters away from each other.

It was, therefore, a level 23 creature from the dungeon, as well as an annoying enemy, as it is difficult to deal much damage to it with normal blows. It is necessary to kill each of the insects to kill that being, something very cumbersome to achieve one by one.

Their attack power isn't high, at least not individually, although they can be dangerous if they focus on weak points, such as eyes or ears, if they aren't properly protected. Or they can all focus on a single point if they have a chance. Or create multiple tiny wounds if the skin of its prey isn't very hard.

The lynx didn't hesitate to attack it, trying to catch the elusive insects one by one. It wasn't easy, but it is also true that she was fast and agile, so she continually managed to reach some, destroying them with the force of her paws and Cyclonic Barrier. The latter was also very useful to protect her, by wounding or dissolving the insects that tried to attack her, although it was gradually weakening.

A little further, the elf was watching pensively. She used a pair of arrows against the insects, that hit despite being a very small target. But it would take many dozens of them to destroy just one of those entities, something that was very inefficient. In fact, if it weren't for her sister, who seemed to be having fun, she would have proposed to sit still and let Cyclone Barrier take care of the bugs, while renewing it whenever necessary.

However, that was a slow strategy, and she wasn't certain if it would work, since it gave them the chance of fleeing. She decided to try Sonic Vibration, to see if the sound had an effect on the insects, but they weren't affected.

"Don't do that! Do you want to make me deaf!?" her sister complained, since she was very sensitive to those kinds of sounds.

"Sorry, sorry, I just wanted to test if it affected them," the elf apologized.

She guessed that the Light Pillar would be effective, since the magic of light and purification is usually strong against mana entities, but it would imply a huge mana cost for each one of them. Light Arrow didn't have an area of effect, and Sun only gave light, it didn't have any purifying effect.

Her best option seemed Twister, but it was very slow, and it was necessary to take all the insects there. The problem was that it was easy for some to escape, in addition to the mana cost. Although less than Light Pillar, it was high.

"In the end, it'll turn out to be more useful than it seemed in the game," she said to herself after trying an arrow with Void.

She had aimed at the ground under her enemy, and it had sucked up a large part of the insects to that spot. Paralyzed for a moment and gathered at one point, they had been an easy prey for the lynx, which soon attacked those who had escaped.

"They are entertaining, but not dangerous," the feline appreciated.

"Entertaining... May I try with the sword?" she wondered

And so she did. It should be said that the Cyclonic Barrier was more effective than the combination of dagger and sword. And even that the feline. It took them a long time, but, in the end, they succeeded.

The elf sat on the ground while laughing.

"Ha, ha. It was fun. But, at this rate, we'll never finish them."

"We can use that arrow from before to put them together, and then we can finish the ones that remain. I promise to leave you some," suggested her sister.

And so they did it. It was quite effective, because the two of them could kill the surviving insects with some ease. In fact, they were becoming more competent at it, ever being able to almost foresee their trajectories.

They also tried Light Pillar, which was as effective as they had imagined. If they could attack many of them together, it could prove useful. If not, it was a waste of mana, so they had tried it just before returning to the rest area.

They had barely traveled a small part of the tunnels, and much less located the floor boss. It wasn't in the same place on all floors, and it wasn't easy to predict the direction the tunnels were going to take. Even if they knew exactly where it was, it was impossible to know in advance if the tunnel they were walking would just end, curl to one side or the other, or cross other tunnels, just as unpredictable as the first one.

So they could only go through each and every tunnel until they reached their destination, something they would continue to do the next day. What was left of the day was spent in enjoying a well-deserved dinner, in which the elf, once again, couldn't stop laughing, this time at her sister sucking long spaghettis.

At first, she had cut them off with her sharp claws, but, later, she had found satisfaction in sucking them whole, no matter how much they hit her muzzle and smeared it with tomato sauce, or something similar.

Apart from dessert, this time there was only one dish, which also contained minced meat, which was by no means ignored by the great glutton. Nor were the donuts, which the feline was lifting by placing a claw in the central hole, and savored it little by little, while rotating it, sometimes with more than one at the same time.

It should be said that the fairies had made some of them quite a bit larger than normal, designed for the lynx, while her sister was savoring the smallest ones, some solid, some filled with chocolate, or with one of the wide variety of creams they had been tasting those days. After that, they went to sleep.

"Luckily, it's cleaned when stored," sighed the elf, while laughing and rubbing her sister's face with a soft towel. She wasn't going to let her go to bed with her face stained.