Chapter 57: New Adventurers

"That's the last of the goblins!" said Furio as he twirled the wrench between his hands.

The enchanted sword stuck to its head glowed fiercely, sending out arcs of fire that torched and blew back the various insect monsters that tried to swarm him.

A few unlucky insects caught in the blade's path split apart before burning up rapidly, disintegrating into nothing but piles of ashes.

"Bug duty, Emi, please!" complained Furio.

"Is that any way to talk to your precious little sister?" said Emi. She was much shorter than her brother, but no less lacking in fierce battle will.

She stuck her staff of steely metal into the ground, the sharp, glaive-like head crashing into a beetle. She twisted the staff, crunching the glaive through the beetle and ending its wriggling.

"She's right, you know," said Vera, third member of the party. Light and athletic build wrapped in form-fitting, layered leather armor.

On the breast of her sleeveless leather vest was an emblem with three stars stitched within it.

Her face was covered in a hood and veil that glowed a slight shade of iridescent rainbow from the magical light emanating from her arms.

Rainbow circuits ran from her fingers all the way up to her shoulders.

"[Withdraw]," said Vera. She reached a hand into empty space, and it sunk into a ripple in the air. From there, she withdrew a lengthy pipe of shingled bronze metal. "Judican artifacts make my skin crawl, made by heartless zealots as they are, but I really cannot deny they can be useful."

She swayed her head from side to side, seeing the bugs approaching her and Emi, flicked her veil to the side, and breathed into the pipe.

Her magical energy infused into the artifact, and a moment later, gouts of flame burst out from the other end of the pipe, washing over the bugs and burning them alive.

She rotated her head, circling the flame around her and creating a ring of flame that kept the rest of the insects out for now.

Furio, however, being physically the strongest and at the head of the party, did not enjoy this flaming barrier, and instead used his enchanted blade to cleave out space for himself.

Though the orange blade had a fire-type monster's core enchanted in it, the flame was meant more to enhance its cutting edge, not to create large fires.

More and more bugs started to near him, and though they were of zero threat to him, they still slowed him down and stopped him from seeing what was ahead.

"I never get to voice an opinion in this party," said Furio. "But that's what I get for having a party made up of my little sister and girlfriend. Everyone told me it was going to be a disaster."

"Oh, stop complaining," said Emilia. "Here, I'll help you out."

With a grunt, Emilia took her glaive-staff and slammed it into the dirt.

A faint blue mana crystal glowed from within the glaive, focusing her magic as grey circuits emerged from her hands and ran up to her forearms.

"[Blade Storm]!" she chanted.

Arcs of grey magical energy crackled around her, forming into six blades of metal that whirled around her at rapid speeds.

She waved her staff towards Furio, and the rotating blades ejected towards him, pushing past the ring of fire and swerved around Furio, grinding up the insects clamoring at him into showers of innards and carapace.

"Ugh," she said, her nose crinkling at the scent of insect innards. She looked down at the guts-soaked grey mantle covering her enchanted leather armor.

On her mantle was an emblem with two stars upon it. "I hear there are public steam baths in Sunda. What I would give now to soak in one of them."

"Hm, I do like the sound of a public bath. Get clean and watch something nice, what's not to like?" Furio leered in front of him as insects began to amass in front of him again in a thick wall of carapaced bodies, but Emilia had cleared enough space for him to work with.

"Here, I will activate Flambe fully to clear a path," said Furio as he aimed his wrench forwards and then ejected the blade attached to the head at high speeds.

The blade began to turn and spiral, unleashing the heat condensed at its edge and expanding it into large wreaths of fire that curled around it.

The enchanted blade roared as flames surged up through its flight, toasting a mass of insects and clearing a straight path ahead. After traveling fifty meters, the blade stopped to a sudden halt, hovering in the air - the end of Furio's magnetic tether.

Furio ran forwards in the clearing he had burned out, keeping his pace slower than usual to make sure Emilia and Vera could keep up.

"Brother, you know you do have a lover, right?" said Emilia as she ran behind Furio.

"What? I just look at other women and admire, you know, the artistry of their bodies. Like admiring a wonderful painting. Don't love them or anything. You know, Vera?" said Furio.

"Falling in love with you has been simultaneously the best and worst thing to happen to me. Some days, I don't know which part wins out," said Vera.

"You won't be thinking so hard once we clear this contract!" said Furio as he peered ahead.

Maybe a good sprint away was a yawning pit in the earth. Spikes of blackened wood arose around the hole, and from it, a faint blue light emanated.

A dungeon.

An Unbound one, it seemed, and it had not had the time to grow and strengthen itself just yet with multiple territories.

In other words, this dungeon was at its weakest state right now.

Perfect to clear, and the weak level of monsters in this area meant that in all likelihood, this dungeon would not be too difficult for Furio, a four-star adventurer, to deal with.

Clearing a dungeon with just one party would net a huge bonus of coin for Furio, enough for him to buy his own place in Tallo.

A nice place, too, not like those rusted out hovels packed together on the lower rings of the city.

Hovels he had spent years in with Emilia.

Now, he finally had the strength to give her a life she was deserving of. A life that their parents, wherever they were in the afterlife, could smile upon.

And a place worthy for Vera too, after all she had done, turning away even from her noble family to adventure with him.

"Don't get too hasty," said Vera as she put in short breaths into the Judiccan flamebringer, shooting out balls of flame around Furio that discouraged any more insects from encroaching. "We were supposed to merely investigate a surge of mana.

This whole thing, an entire dungeon, this is beyond our expectations.

We don't have a proper sorcerer of the Order with us either to examine anything.

We have no idea what we are getting into. Northern goblins and types from Xin and Foraoise mean that there's a Warper in the dungeon, and who knows what kind of monster that can bring in?"

"Obviously, nothing too exciting. We have far gone past dealing with goblins, love. I could beat four champions at once, let alone the lot we have dealt with so far," said Furio. "And besides, if we leave this unbound dungeon, things will just get worse.

More and more monsters will come to it. There were already enough goblins here going on about invading before we took them out.

We could portal back to the safe zone and wait for League reinforcements, but this dungeon is unbound: what if it moves?

Or if the monsters decide to keep attacking?

The village south of here has no protectors to it. Might take hours to get to it by foot, but if there's a Warper, then maybe they can port there.

The Sundan soldiers there have already been wiped out, and they would never be able to deal with something like this to begin with.

We as adventurers have a duty to hold the line here. Or clear the dungeon too if we can."

He reached the end of the fifty meters Flambe's activation had cleared out. The blade had lost its orange glow from activating, and he tapped it with his wrench, causing it to float above the wrench head.

"Switching to Fulmi," said Furio. He reached behind his back to where five sheaths lay strapped and withdrew one of the blades, this one inside a pale blue sheath.

With a flick of his wrist, he tossed the segmented blade in front of his wrench and then tapped it, causing the sword to slot into the wrench head with a click.

The sword was smaller than Flambe, and its ornamental design made up of spiked segments meant it was not great for face to face combat.

But it was quite useful for this.

Furio thrust out his wrench as the insects started to swarm again, and from the various spiked segments making up Fulmi, arcs of lightning emerged, coursing into the wall of bugs and using their bodies further as conduits.

Electricity screamed as powerful currents of magical lightning seized up the wall of insects for a few seconds, causing their carapaces to crack and steam up before all of them exploded simultaneously in a sea of showering guts and shell.

Furio twirled his wrench in front of him, blocking out most of the debris.

"Agh." Emilia spat out a piece of semi-charred insect flesh from her mouth. "At least give us a warning!"

"I did, Emi, you just need to get faster. If you want to catch up to me, this is how fast you'll have to be," said Furio.

"You know-," Emilia began before she yelped, a rock pelting the side of her head, passing through the flames Vera blew out.

Immediately, Vera rushed to her side. "Are you okay, dear? I can bring out something to stem the hurt."

"Yes, I'm-I'm fine," said Emilia as she shook her head. "Just a small bruise, maybe. But where-,"

"There," said Furio. He had turned around the moment he heard his little sister cry out, and with focused senses, he spotted the culprit.

A green skinned goblin. A small one. It pranced up and down the heads of larger insects as ran away, a sling in its hands.

Furio's expression darkened. He had thought he had dealt with all the goblins here. But he had been careless and left the smaller goblins around because he was in a rush to get into the dungeon.

He cursed his carelessness and aimed the wrench at the tiny goblin's rapidly fading form.

Fulmi ejected from the wrench at high speeds, shooting out and skewering the goblin. Furio span the wrench in his hands, and the sword still magnetically tethered to the wrench mirrored the movements, spinning around and tearing the goblin apart into pieces.

"Sorry, Emi. Sorry. That won't happen again," said Furio. "I promise."

"You promise me way too much, brother. Just focus on yourself," said Emilia. She smiled as she started to run again, towards Furio before something tore the legs from her body.