Chapter 135 - Maple

After a while since the whole building collapsed, Maple woke to the sound of the shield that enveloped her, now in operation for too many hours, as it was slowly fading.

Slowly realizing what was happening, Maple's eyes, previously half-closed, flung so wide that if the whole area hadn't been wrapped in total darkness, the size of her iris could have been seen as they were much larger than normal.

Her heartbeat, previously relaxed, was now so high that Maple could feel her heart pounding violently in her c.h.e.s.t as if, from one moment to the next, it could explode. She quickly tried to move her head to look around, but all she could see was the tiny line of the shield that, by now, was so thin as to be almost unrecognizable in the darkness.

With her breathing immediately speeding up, Maple tried to move her paws. Noticing that fortunately they were still working, she immediately tried to figure out in which direction she would have to dig to the surface.

What she didn't notice, was that she wasn't the only one who was buried deep in the rubble, but perhaps it was even better as others, didn't have the same protection Maple have had had.

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After a whole minute that Maple had -without much result- attempted to dig to the surface, she could see as the thin layer of shield dissolved, now that all the instructor's spiritual energy acc.u.mulated in it had been consumed.

Seeing the rubble drew near her and made the area tighter second after second, her breathing began to escalate, cold sweat quickly formed all over her face and, she immediately cried out in desperation as it slowly enveloped her... In no-time, she was forcing her lungs to breathe until she was gasping with a feeling of dizziness while in her mind, her thought was only one.

'I..don't want...to die..'

Forcing her paws against the rubble, Maple tried to push everything away, but soon, she noticed that even this seemed not to be as effective as she would have hoped while, from the strong despair she was feeling, incessant tears began to come down from her face, as she slowly realized that her life would soon end.

'At least..I hope that all the others managed to save themselves..'

This thought, led her to close her eyes slowly and, whiles the darkness enveloping her threatened to take her life altogether, she could hear, now that she was finally not just focused on how scary the situation was, that someone out there was fighting.

These sounds, however, were interpreted by Maple as if someone was digging into the ground...

'It's useless..'

Although normally, Maple would immediately regain the strength to try to resist and to give more time to whoever was looking for her, she could feel that her body, after venting all that stress in such a short time, was now rather weak, and this, brought her paws, which before were pushing hard against the rubble, to slowly let go of the grip...

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The weak scream heard by Ethan, immediately brought him to concentrate, but he knew that the type of noise emitted wasn't like the skeletons at all.

'Maybe.. another monster..?'

This thought led Ethan to decide to enter the building, even if it was totally ruined as, he still had a mission to accomplish.

'Once I finish the quests, I wonder what I'll be facing in this Dungeon..'

Knowing that 1 hour was equivalent to 12 minutes in the outside world, Ethan understood this was an opportunity not to be missed under any circ.u.mstances.

With these thoughts in mind, he laid his foot upon the rubble, to pass over it to explore what was once a majestic structure, but as soon as he did so, he could already hear several noises from the rubble, and he could see that something like a paw was coming out of the ground.

'Skeletons..again..this time..'

Once the first skeleton had finally come out of the rubble, Ethan could see that the latter was very different from the previous ones, all bipeds.

Stopping to analyse it for a second, Ethan could notice that the appearance it had was similar to that of a dog in his previous world, but he decided not to get lost in thought. In fact, after only a moment that had passed, the other skeletons were already ready to encircle him.

But before his fight could begin, Ethan was stopped by screams, which, compared to before, were very different.

Knowing that the sound came from below, and that the skeletons had just emerged from the rubble, Ethan had no choice but to think for a moment about what he had to do. He knew very well that the abilities of the monsters were completely unknown to him, and he didn't have Light, who could tell him if the sound coming from below was just an illusion, Ethan couldn't know if the sounds he heard were real, or not.

But, hearing those heartbreaking screams, led him to lower his head as he gulped rather heavily while the skeletons, without hesitation, threw themselves at him after encircling him.

'It may be a trap, but..I have no choice but to help the being stacked in the rubble. The fact they're not coming out, could mean that they're trying to lure me into a trap, or that the rubble is crushing them...'

With this thought in mind, Ethan had by now realized that the entity trapped in the rubble might not even be part of the Dungeon, just because it was not yet inside it, but he also knew he could not be too confident about the entity's alignment...

As the skeletons were about to bite him and remove pieces of his flesh, Ethan decided that, in this emergency situation, it was better not to hold back since the desperate screams had stopped, and this could only make him think the worst.

Before the skeletons were able to attack him though, they felt the surrounding air changing rapidly, and before they could realize what was going on, they were all disintegrated by the very strong impact of the air on them, as it, without hesitation, broke their bones into a thousand pieces, leading them to instant death as the remains of their bones were thrown away in all directions by the bursting force emitted by the air.

This was precisely the result of [Avian] who, used by Ethan to control the surrounding air, had simply created a kind of ring around himself, able to quickly get rid of any enemy who would attack as a quadruped.

But, Ethan decided not to focus on the new idea that came to him for his training with [Avian] since now, he certainly had something more important to do. Although he could use the bubbles of mana to kill all the skeletons in the area, Ethan knew that this would be too risky for the life of the living being under his feet.

Using [Toughness] combined to [Boost Magic] so as to protect his hands while adding strength, Ethan decided to 'dig' his way down with b.a.r.e hands, rather than opt for [Avian] alone. His plan, in fact, was to slightly raise the rubble, and then use [Avian] along with his physical strength, to be faster since he was aware that in a short time, the [Skeleton-Foxes] would still come to him, even if he had already killed more than 13 with his previous use of [Avian] as, after the ring wrapped himself to protect him from attack, instead of dispersing immediately, it first expanded, destroying the heads of the other foxes that were just about to run towards him.

What Ethan didn't know was that Maple was so close to the entrance, thanks to the efforts of the heroic instructor as, while he was implementing his plan, more and more [Skeleton-Foxes] were emerging from the ground, and although they were not immediately running towards him, they were gathering in various areas of the building...

Immediately implementing his plan, Ethan excavated about four meters before he could glimpse the outline of a living being.

But even though he was about to ask for something, he could immediately see that the state of the latter was far from well...Although Ethan could immediately notice that she was very dirty, this didn't even make him blink as without hesitation, he gently brought his hands behind her back, so that he could lift her from the floor.

He didn't know yet if the fox she was holding would be an enemy, but from the way she looked, Ethan had serious doubts about it..

'I have no ability to heal her. The only option I have left is to abandon the idea of entering the dungeon in these conditions...'

The damage caused by being completely crushed for about two seconds before Ethan pulled her out was almost fatal to her. In fact, Ethan could see that all of her legs, and paws were practically destroyed but even if that was the case, he could immediately notice strange things, such as the fact that even if she was covered in dirt, she didn't emit a bad smell, as if she had never been dirty in the foreground, and her fur, although very spoiled, still shone with a very bright red but unfortunately, for the time being, he couldn't focus on the details of the fox he had just saved, as he could feel that the [Skeleton-Foxes] were already a few steps away from him, after using his magic so openly.

Even though this was another strange question that Ethan was asking himself, he decided not to think about it before he asked the system to get out of the dungeon with the fox...

[Are you sure you want to leave the [Inari's Hidden Dungeon]?]

Seeing the two buttons appear, Ethan sighed as he thought of tapping on the yes as, he decided to directly close his eyes while the foxes, now a few meters from him, were already ready to attack him, but seeing the fox he held in his arms, led them to remain still on their positions as they saw that Ethan simply disappeared and, with this, all the skeletons returned bones that, would incessantly wait for Ethan to return, so that they could claim his life..

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(I have a discord server. discord.gg/cpVr5X8. You may ask me: "Why should I enter the server?". Well, I'm replying to every interesting question you readers are asking in my chapters, so, you should absolutely enter if you want to read my answers. Ah, and you can find some image reference of items in the story such as Light..! (Soon even Qienta).. so it's recommended to join, I frequently post polls as well, regarding things that(most likely) will be present in the story. One last thing, I post chapter updates in my discord right after I posted on , so I guess you can join to be able to know when I post chapters faster.)

(Poll going on in the discord: Who do you prefer? Qienta or Light? | Cat-girl or Renard(Fox))

(Do you enjoy reading my novel? If the answer is yes, then thanks. I'll leave my ******* here. w ww.pat reon.com/watashiwavdesu)

(Yes, if you're wondering, the real plot begins now. From the poll on discord, I chose to begin with it, instead of going for the long explanation. In my discord, you'll find the way it would have developed if you chose the first option)

(Alternate Titles: "And it was at this very moment that Maple and Ethan's lives intertwined.", "Prelude, Beginning of the plot.","The mystery behind the [True Dungeon]", "I miss Light already", "Clash, New Technique, In-depth Study by [Avian], Discovery of a Helpless Fox")