Chapter 27 - Anomaly(2/2)

Setting his clothes' weight to normal, He felt his body lighter than before. Seeing the Hobgoblins run towards him, he evaded their attack while retreating in the aftermath.

Ethan, felt happy about his own speed before the Hobgoblin tried to strike at him again. Dodging the claw, he used his [Boost Magic] to cut the monster in two. With his action, the Hobgoblin dissipated. Seeing their 'companion' be killed like this, infuriated the other Hobgoblins who tried to attack him another time.

Having four Hobgoblins to take care of, Ethan bore the fatigue while he brought his speed and mental speed to the max.

Seeing the monsters run at a speed much slower than before, he used this moment to try the [Boost Magic] on his Pow, successfully cut off all their heads with a single slice.

After some seconds, the magic utilized all of Ethan's mana. Feeling the tiredness, he decided to rest a bit before he could find Ais to see if her situation was better or worse than his own.

---

The situation was different for Ais. She went all the way down to the 14th floor without finding abnormalities but, the moment she went to the 15th, she felt there was something different.

In a battle-ready state, she explored the floor, without even a monster spawning at all. After going further, she went in a room clearly different from the others. After she entered the room, Ais saw a Dragon with red scales all over his body with black wings. Having a trauma related to Dragons, Ais jumped towards it without hesitation before trying to slice its head with [Ariel] at full speed.

She saw the Dragon use its flame to defend against the hit. Without hesitation, Ais sliced towards the flames while the Dragon tried to use its wings to hit her.

She dodged the hit before her sword cut one of the wings in two.

With a tremendous roar, the Dragon once again attempted to use its flames to kill the enemy. Its attack failed miserably before the last thing it saw was a sword cutting off its head.

After 30 minutes, seeing Ethan resting on the floor, she went near him before saying

"I fought against a... Dragon.."

Seeing the shocked expression on Ethan's face, she added

"Are you... Ok?"

He replied immediately

"Yes, I fought against the Hobgoblins without that much of an issue but...a Dragon?? Why should it spawn in the Upper Floors?"

Ais looked at him with a confused expression on her face while he thought

'Well.. I expected her to be confused'

With this, he started to think about possibilities but, he found it was difficult to find the answer now that the story was messed up by his presence.

'I shouldn't focus on the things I knew about the anime... But information can still be useful. The variant of the Goliath spawned because Hestia and Hermes entered the dungeon but..'

Seeing a light in his thoughts, he said

"Maybe a God entered the Dungeon"

Hearing his words made Ais look at him with the same confused expression. Deciding to explain further, he added

"It's one of the possibilities that brought monsters more powerful than normal to be spawned but I don't know if it's the reason. The fact there was a Dragon on the 15th floor is strange. Normally, I know there are Green Dragons that protects a treasure tree but you didn't say there was one.."

She replied

"I didn't see any treasure tree.."

Nodding his head, Ethan decided it wasn't time to think about the reason of the abnormalities before he could prevent them from spread further. Standing up, he said

"We should check on the other floors.."

With this, The two made their way down to the 15th floor with Ais using [Ariel] to kill all the monsters to save time.

["Light, can you tell me if there are abnormalities?"]

She immediately answered

[Scanning the area...]

[There aren't abnormalities present on this area. It seems the Dragon spawned moments before Ais entered the room]

Hearing this made Ethan feel a chill down his spine.

["Are you saying.. Abnormalities are on the monsters' spawning?"]

[I can't be sure...]

Understanding Light can't do everything, he replied

["Thanks Light, you helped me"]

"Ais, the Dragon you fought spawned moments before you arrived at the floor.."

Without the confused expression on Ais' face dissipate, he added

"When we were on the 9th floor, 5 Hobgoblins spawned, You were alone on the 15th floor and a huge Dragon spawned, that means there could be even more anomalies in the floors below."

Finally, understanding what he meant, Ais said

"If it's the case...we should hurry.."

Ethan, immediately said

"Yes, we should go.."

going down to the 16th floor, they saw a Party of 3 people run towards them. Ethan, immediately recognized the party and, with a high-speed movement, he made the 3 stop while saying

"Takemikazuchi Familia.. What happened?"

"Ethan-dono! Why are you here?"

Looking at her, he replied

"I am with my own Familia member, we encountered some abnormalities down our way and, thinking that it could have been the same case for other floors, we wanted to venture down in the Dungeon, and you? Did you encounter some variant or monster that shouldn't appear on the floor we are currently in?"

Hearing this, Mikoto had a shocked expression on her face but, without having it shown up too much, she said

"Yes, we encountered a large Monster Party that nearly wiped us out, but we managed to escape"

He thought for a moment that he actually fought two monster parties and, the fact that so many monster parties were occurring made Ethan think about the situation they were in. It would be better to make an expedition with all the Loki Familia members to understand the situation. Clearing his thoughts, he replied

"I see, are you hurt? I have some potions"

After he said this, Ais decided to intervene. She went near him while saying

"Was there...someone else..other than you?"

"Yes..we saw..a person that was fighting against a group of Minotaurs.."

With the tone of voice she was using, Ethan understood she struggled on the decision but, the fact he didn't know her made him make a serious expression on his face. He looked at the Captain of the Takemikazuchi familia, saying

"You decided to let him die."

Ouka, hearing his words, replied

"It was the only possibility I had to save my teammates"

With his statement, Mikoto and Chigusa had troubled look on their faces but, deciding to ignore their feelings at the moment, he said

"Ais, we need to go. The three of them can make their way alone to the surface."

She nodded her head before the two vanished from sight

Mikoto, seeing this, sighed before saying

"We had to help him..."

Ouka, didn't reply to her words. Instead, he said

"We need to go and inform Takemizakuchi-sama about the situation."

Mikoto, nodded her head but her thoughts were directed to Ethan

'Ethan-dono, please, save him..'

---

After the two made their way in the 16th floor, they finally saw the monster party that spawned on the Takemikazuchi Familia.

With her Battle-ready state, Ais said

"I will go.."

She was ready to go but, before she could, Ethan replied

"Yes, but I will come with you"

She wanted to say something but, she nodded her head without adding anything more.

After they went near the Monster Party, composed of Almiraj and Lygerfang, they saw a well-known werewolf with green hair and amber eyes, fighting against groups of Monsters with relative ease but, the monsters were too many for him to kill them all easily.

Ethan wanted to laugh at the situation because the possibilities of something like this happening weren't that much. With a high-speed movement, he went near the werewolf, saying

"You are a pain, Bete..just how unlucky are you?"

Hearing the too familiar voice, Bete continued to fight against a group of monsters. With a 'tch' he replied

"What are you doing here..weakling? You should be on the first floors fighting against some shitty goblins"

After Bete said this, He saw Ethan kill an Almiraj before saying

"Don't worry about it, worry about your monsters instead"

While saying this, They saw Ais slice a group of monsters. Seeing her brought a shocked expression on Bete's face.

"Why were you with Ais? weaklings shouldn't be with the strong!"

Ignoring him, Ethan thought about the monster they were facing.

'No wonder even Bete can't easily kill them, they are...all variants!? Isn't this game a little broken?'

With this, he decided to not answer Bete's insults for now.

"Careful, the monsters here are all Variants."

Hearing his words, Bete was pissed off even more

"Huh? And how can you say that?"

Ethan tried to find a good excuse but, finding the need to have one unnecessary, he said

"I have a lot of information about the Dungeon and, The fact these Almiraj are stronger than a level 2 is the first thing, the second is that The colour of their eyes is slightly yellow instead of their deep red and, about the Lygerfang, their fangs are larger and the colour of their fur is slightly different from what is doc.u.mented in the Guild's doc.u.ments"

Ethan's complex answer made Bete think he was a fool who presented at the Guild lessons but, in reality, it was better because with this Bete "trusted" Ethan's judgment more than before.

With another 'tch', the group wiped out the Monster Party after 10 minutes. Remembering about his previous unanswered question, Bete furrowed his brows.

"Answer me you weakling, Why are you with Ais?"

This time, Ais actually looked at him, saying

"It's none of your business..."

Hearing the unexpected answer from Ais, Bete felt sad for a moment but, repressing these thoughts, he headed towards the 15th floor.

Seeing him going on his own towards the upper floors, Ethan said to Ais

"We should go to the surface too"

Without uttering a word, Ais nodded her head while Ethan thought

'It surprised me...'

---

(I have a discord server. discord.gg/cpVr5X8 If you enter it, you can choose one of Ethan's future powers from the pool I created, but that's not all! On the server, you can see the reference on some things that will be present in the story! Right now you can freely see some things like the [Twin's Digimon], but I advise you to read the story further before seeing them otherwise you'll get spoilers!)

(Alternate Titles: "Ethan and Bete...becoming BFF in the Dungeon!?", "Bete..teammateszoned in the Dungeon!?", "Bete is not a tsundere. Don't insult tsunderes")