We hide behind some thickets and watch the ruined village below the hill. All signs of undead and demons have disappeared, but this time we know where they are. They won't trick us again. We just need to design a new plan taking this into account.
"Do you have any idea?"
"Not yet. And you?"
"I was the one to come up with every plan so far, now it's your time to do it."
"Do you mean the two epic failures that almost led to our deaths?"
Hahaha, she got me there. I hoped she would have forgotten by now, but it seems I was wrong. "...Fine. Let's think something between the two of us."
"Yes!"
Hmm… There's not much difference between how the village looks now and how it did when we came into the dungeon.
Except for the scattered bones of those skeletons that died and didn't reassemble, there's no sign of enemies anywhere. After we managed to escape their encirclement, the demons ordered the skeletons to burrow themselves back into the ground, and then they spread throughout the ruins, disappearing from our view.
They didn't chase us, which is good and bad at the same time. Good because we now have time to reorganize and plan. And bad because… well, we have to go back inside the village to clear the dungeon. It'd have been easier if we could fight them on our terms instead of theirs.
And the worst is that we still have no idea where the dungeon core is!
Not like Ricard and Laura found our core yet anyway… We still have time.
Through the screen I make appear in front of me, I watch as Ricard shouts and scrambles around, trying to stay away from the MP-draining effects. The light coming from the cracks on the walls flashes intensely, a signal that they've triggered what they shouldn't.
Yeah… suffer! Suffer all the pain and torment I've been suffering thanks to your idea of participating in the next event!
Feel my pain and agony caused by spending time with the Abyss monsters! Fufufu! Hahaha!
Wait a moment. That undead chasing after Ricard and Laura looks familiar… Aha! It's the one that screwed us over last time!
"So this is why we didn't see it today…"
Clara turns her head in my direction and asks, "Did you say anything?"
"No, it's nothing, I was talking to myself." I shake my head. "So… did you come up with a plan?"
Clara shakes her head but points with her tentacles towards the village. No, not towards the village but the ruined castle at the end of it, on top of a hill. It paints an eerie silhouette on the purple sky, with the red light reflecting on the sea illuminating the stone blocks from below.
"We know the village is filled with enemies, but they aren't our objective. Why don't we ignore them and charge towards the castle to find the dungeon core?"
Aaah, the classic strategy of charging ahead like a headless chicken, hoping to survive against all odds.
I like it! But it's a shame I can't support her idea. Truly, a shame.
"But how do you plan to reach it? And what if the core is somewhere else?"
"I don't know…"
The single clue we got was that purple amulet worn by the undead boss-looking monster, but now that monster is inside our dungeon…
Wait a moment! Isn't that undead with Ricard and Laura right now?
That purple-glowing pendant looked like an important key item, and key items can't be brought out of the dungeon, because they're needed to clear it. So, unless I've been wrong all along, it means the pendant must still exist. It must be hidden somewhere!
And we just need to find it… There might even be more than one hidden around.
"Hey, Lemon. Do you want to play 'ninjas'?"
After all, who said the enemies are the only ones that can play hide and seek? We can do that too!
After hearing my question, Clara grabs my hands and looks directly into my eyes from below.
"Yes! Let's do it!"
If she weren't using her horrifying Champion, I'm sure her eyes would be glittering right now, with stars flying out of them. She'd look adorable! But, since she's using her Champion, her actions send shivers down my spine instead.
Don't do that, my dear sister, please. Your brother kindly asks you to stop. It isn't good for his fragile heart.
"Haha, hahaha! I've always wanted to try this…" I chuckle, hiding my body behind one of the house's walls.
From my position, I can see a great part of the ruined village. Like before, there are no signs of enemies, but unlike before, this time I'm sure they don't know where we are. I can't feel the eyes of the hidden demons on us, waiting for us to lower our guard.
There were two demons hidden inside the house, but we surprised them and killed them before they could call for reinforcements.
Aaah, Invisibility! The most used skill by DMA players…!
I always thought it was lame because it was too common, but now that I'm using it, I'm starting to understand how enjoyable it is to move around undetected and be able to surprise the opponents with an unavoidable first strike. Even Clara, who sometimes has trouble getting close to the enemies for her skills to work, doesn't have this problem thanks to Invisibility!
Invisibility is very versatile and allows the user to turn invisible for as long as they can keep spending MP. When upgraded, it even allows you to make other players and monsters invisible too!
Sure, it costs a lot of MP. But I can't effectively kill the skeletons anyway, so I might as well use my MP somewhere else.
By the way, in case you're curious. I don't know if I'll be using this skill after these matches, but it was important to get it, even if I had to ditch one of my most precious skills to pick it. And that's because, when we were planning our matches, we found that our greatest weakness was scouting.
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Neither of us can do it properly! We had to find some way to do it, or we'd be doomed!
Instead of despairing or wasting energies on a monster whose AI might or might not work, and despite my opposition to the idea, we decided I'd pick the Invisibility skill and ditch both Lightning Shield and Indomitable Will.
But now, I'm glad I did it.
I might consider keeping Invisibility in the future… The more I use it, the more I like the idea of being able to surprise my invaders by suddenly appearing behind them like a ghost, laughing and ready to torment them with everything I've got...
That's pretty mad-scientist-like, don't you agree? Hahaha!
"Lemon, did you find anything?"
"No. There's nothing here. Just dust, broken furniture, and skulls." My sister's voice reaches me from behind. She was investigating while I kept guard.
Nothing? What a shame.
"Is that so? Let's try the next house."
It's time to use Invisibility again. I'll turn myself and my sister invisible and move towards the next house…
My thoughts get interrupted when I feel something slide over my shoulder. A slimy sensation trails around my neck, slowly going from left to right, wrapping itself around me. After completing the full circle, it starts tightening, choking me.
During all this, I'm too shocked to react, but when it starts applying extra force, I snap out of it.
"Ugh, agh! T-that's…!"
What the fuck!? An invisible monster!? I can't see what's choking me!
It's like one of those nightmares I'm having lately. An Abyss monster grabs me and chokes me until I lose consciousness and suddenly awaken, completely soaked in sweat…
But we aren't inside an Abyss dungeon! What's more, we left all of our monsters outside the village because I can't maintain Invisibility on so many targets at the same time!
On the corner of my vision, I can see my HP decreasing.
Fuuck! They got meeeee…!
"...hehehe. I've got you."
Right before I lose my sanity, I hear a voice right next to my ear.
"Cl- L-Lemon!?"
"Yes, it's meeeee!" She happily chuckles and releases me. "Did I scare you?"
The thing wrapping around my neck releases its grip, and I turn around towards the voice. Empty space greets me.
Why is she invisible…?
Ah, right! I forgot to deactivate her Invisibility! It automatically deactivates when taking damage or attacking, but since she did neither… What a waste of MP.
I deactivate the skill, and her Champion appears right in front, a bit too close for my liking.
"What the fuck are you doing, Lemon!? What would you do if I had screamed!?" Well, I did scream, but it wasn't too loud. Hopefully, no enemy would have heard it. "Are you trying to kill me!?"
I swear, I almost suffered a heart attack.
"Hehehe, I was just playing around." She chuckles. "There's no way you would have died, it isn't like I was using my skills on you."
"Did you forget about your Decaying Touch?"
That thing activates on contact, regardless of ally or foe.
Clara tilts her head and smacks her forehead with the tip of her tentacle arm. "Oh, right. I did!"
If this were in real life, she'd look cute, with her current pose and tongue sticking out. But since this is inside the game, she makes me shudder instead.
"I'm sorry, brother. I didn't want to damage your Champion. I just wanted to scare you…"
"Yeah… good job with that. Just don't do it again. Ever."
"I won't!" She immediately responds, enthusiastically shaking her head. "I won't do it again!"
We'll see about that. I wonder how long your promise will last this time.
"Alright, let's forget about this and move to the next house. I'm starting to run low on MP, so I hope we find something soon…"
It definitely doesn't have anything to do with the fact that I forgot to deactivate Clara's Invisibility. Yeah, definitely not! I was already low on MP when we came inside the house…
Which makes my mistake worse, but this and that are two separate matters.
"Ooh, look!" Clara points outside the window, prompting me to turn around. "A purple glow! This must be a clue!"
Somewhere to our left – the ruins of the closest house cover it, so I can't see the origin –, a purple glow catches my attention before disappearing. It's the same purple light released by the dungeon cores, as well as the same light from that amulet we've been searching for.
There must be a reason we didn't see the light until now. We'll soon discover why.
"Let's go, Lemon. Before we lose its trail!"
"Yes!"
Remaining invisible, we approach the suspect location. Since we can't see each other, as we're both invisible, we agreed I'd take the lead, take a peek inside, and tell Clara how to proceed. She'll wait for me right next to the entrance. Normally, you'd avoid it because it's too easy to be detected, but not this one. This one is an easy entry point because the door is missing.
Inside, I find another demon duo. They're sticking to the wall, watching what's going on from the window's hole.
I go back outside and move my hands around, trying to feel my sister's Champion. I touch something slimy that twists around as if alive, which makes me know I've found her.
The mere touch makes me want to run away. But if I don't see it, it isn't as disgusting.
She's doing well, staying still while I, who's invisible to her, touch her. If it were me, I'd be freaking out right now. That's just another reason why I was the one scouting instead of her.
I feel her body shape until I find her head – or to be more precise, the lump of tentacles forming something that resembles a head – and approach to whisper next to her ear.
"Two near the first left window. I'll leave them to you."
"Okay." I hear her whisper in return.
We move with our hands clasped together – well, my hand and whatever Clara's Champion has – to avoid bumping into each other. As soon as we step inside, she releases my hand and approaches the two demons.
Unaware of the incoming danger, the demons remain still.
It happens too fast. Suddenly, invisible tentacles rush forward and drag the demons to the ground. My sister's body reveals itself as she stacks her damage over time effects on her victims.
The demons struggle to get out of my sister's grasp, but between the applied silence and ridiculous damage, they die before they can call for help.
I shudder. Thank god it isn't me…
"Good job, Lemon."
As soon as the demons die, I approach their corpses and start checking their possessions. I quickly find what I'm looking for.
In my hand, there's a pendant with a peculiar shape. From the sharp edges and flat sides, it's clear its part of a set. There must be at least two more pendants like this one, and they'll fit together, creating a single, bigger figure when joined.
"But why doesn't it glow…?"
I shake the pendant around, trying to awaken it.
"Let me see it!"
"H-hey…!"
Clara snatches the pendant away. As soon as she gets hold of it, she runs away from me and approaches the window to see it better.
It's then that it happens. As soon as the sun's light touches the pendant's surface, it starts emitting the purple light.
Aha! So that's why we didn't find any tracks! The short purple flash we saw before must have been when the demons changed positions, running between ruined houses, or because they made a mistake and briefly exposed it to the light coming from the window!
This trait will make it harder to find the other fragments, but now that we know what we're looking for, it'll be a lot easier!
"Fufufu! Hahaha!" I start laughing like a maniac. "Now that I know what the trick is, nothing can stop me!"
"H-hey, brother. You're doing it again!" Clara approaches and puts her 'hand' around my mouth, forcing me to stop laughing. "At least, don't shout! We're in the middle of enemy territory!"
Ah, she's right.
"Aah, the most classic of classic games. The key that's split into fragments, which the players must find, to open the door. There's a reason why the classics are called like that. It's because they've been proven to work."
- From an unknown source.
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