Chapter 80 80: Making Alice Trust Him [Pt2]

"Don't worry so much. Everything is going to be alright now that I am the team leader. I will not let you die."

This was what Alice said but she was scared. She twirled her blue hair nervously while not letting it show up on her face. Her team had placed their trust in her and Alice was going to make sure she kept it up.

She quickly looked at her team of five. There were three males and two females. Three adults and two teenagers. This was far from her standard team and Alice sighed.

'I will have to take care of a lot of extra work. I do not think teenagers will be able to do much for me. As for the man,' Alice looked at the oldest man in their group, an uncle in his fifties, 'he might be a liability as well.'

Overall, there seemed to be only one usable person on their team but Alice needed the money.

"U-Um, how long will it take for us to come back? I kind of am in a hurry to come back. Oh, my name is Daphney. I guess it's nice to meet you all."

The teenage girl introduced herself. Her nervousness seemed to be getting better as time passed and Alice nodded toward her.

"My name is Alice. I don't know how long we will be in the dungeon if things go wrong but it should take about 4-5 hours on average if everything goes according to plan."

Alice explained with a calm expression. She turned to everyone else, wondering if they would introduce themselves as well.

"Nice, so I can come back and hold a drinking session. Man, it has been ages since I've been in one. I am Benjamin by the way."

The oldest in the group was introduced. That only left Keith and the other male teenager.

"My name is Noah, it's nice to meet you."

Keith introduced himself with his fake identity but he felt awkward as he said his 'fake' name. He was not used to being addressed as Noah.

"I'm Ash. I guess I will lend you my strength since it looks like you need it. By the way, I have experience with dungeons so you can count on me."

The second teenager spoke with sake confidence. The way he held himself told Alice that he was shooting empty bombs right now.

'In the end, only one person on my team looks useful. I hope nothing goes wrong inside the dungeon.'

With this, the introduction part was done Alice lead the group into the dungeon. It was the lowest-rated dungeon she could find on the mission board. But even this was beginning to look like too much to her.

Alice was worried now. The first hurdle in this dungeon, the small spot of spawns was approaching and she had no idea how their group was going to handle this.

After even, even if this was the lowest group of monsters, a monster was easily able to surpass the human level of strength. The chances of death and injury were high.

"Everyone, get ready to fight. Whatever you do, you need to survive."

Alice warned everyone and they waited for the monsters to appear.

A small white egg-like blob rolled toward them. It was as big as a soccer ball and looked easy to crack.

It looked harmless and Daphney sighed in relief as she spotted it. The cute shape looked easy on the eye and she wanted to try squishing it.

"Don't step near the ball. Guys, we got the worst possible outcome from all the available monsters in this dungeon - the exploding slimes. It will hurt if they explode too close to your face."

Alice wanted and Daphney took an instant step back from the slimes.

They went from looking adorable too dangerous in her eyes in a matter of seconds. Ash also stepped back from the slimes that were inching closer to him.

"Hey, isn't the objective of our dungeon visit to kill these slimes and take their products back? How do you suppose we kill them if we have to stay back from them."

Ash asked Alice but she was not the one to answer.

Instead, Benjamin raised his gun and shot a few slimes away from him. They explosives, causing a small dent in the ground.

Everyone except Benjamin had an offended expression on their faces while Benjamin grinned a big grin.

"This is how you kill them, brat. You just shoot at them until they give in. Aww, don't tell me that you don't have any ranged skills."

Benjamin taunted Ash which caused him to look irritated.

While everyone else was busy doing this, Alice noticed that Noah was not with them. He seemed to be struggling to fight the slimes on his own.

He had killed a few but his mana control was all over the place. It was almost as if Noah could not control his mana.

'But surely that is not so. Such a coincidence is not possible.  I must be overthinking things and Noah must not have enough mana to cast a big spell.'

Alice nodded to herself, almost as if she had figured out a big mystery in her head. She was about to console Noah that he did not need to be bothered by not having enough mana when a small explosion occurred.

Until now, Noah had been using a barely detectable amount of mana to cast spells but his mana usage surged suddenly during his last casting.

"Everyone, duck right now. Duck and hold your breath for the next few seconds."

Alice quickly wanted everyone and they all drove down to hold their breath. The slimes exploded one by one due to the sudden surge of mana.

Surprisingly enough, Noah looked alright even when he was caught in the uncontrolled explosion.

"What do you think you are doing? Your clumsy spell could have killed us all."

Ash complained and Noah looked sheepish but also tired.

"Sorry, I did not mean to cause this explosion. I will be more careful next time."

Noah apologized and Alice was about to tell him it was not a big deal. But she was beaten by the other members of her party.

"Are you serious? You almost killed us and all you can do is apologize to us? Where do you get your confidence to apologize from? You can feel your mana, right? Then use it properly"

Alice stopped short in her consoling Noah. Ash's words had struck her and she was unable to move or think. They reminded her so much of what he went through herself that she was stunned.

The insults Ash had spoken were also some of the tamer ones Alice was used to. She could not believe she was hearing someone else go through what she had gone through.

Even the bitter smile on Noah's face reminded Alice of her and Alex's bitter past.

'No, do not think too much about this. You gained your ability to feel the mana and auras after a struggle. Do not be a fool and give it up just like this.'

Alice snapped herself out of her daze and faced Noah. She felt sorry for the man and his bitter expression caused Alice to flinch.

But her determination to not give in pushed her forward and she was able to look Noah in the eye.

"Noah, what you did was foolish and a little reckless. You should stay in the back and not help until the situation is dire."

It killed Alice to say this to Noah who was struggling. It made her feel like her bullies who had not understood her plight and continued to attack her regardless of her circumstances.

Noah looked resigned but not shocked. He seemed used to being berated and that made Alice feel even more guilty. She tried reaching out for the man but Noah dodged her hand.

It was a shock for Alice but she could not do anything about it now. It was her fault that made Noah the current liability for their team.

"Anyway, I will be happy to spend all our time here but we still need to clear a few more monsters before we have enough to take back So, it's time for less talking and more killing."

Benjamin yelled, changing the mood. He placed one hand on top of Ash's shoulder and began to drag the teenager. Daphney looked confused and scared but she followed along for money.

"Hey, wait. We should have a strategy before-"

Alice tried to stop her party from being reckless but they did not listen to her. And Noah was still down, likely berating himself for what happened.

Alice did not like what was happening around her but she was helpless to stop it. Her feelings were all twisted and jumbled up inside her heart. So, she decided to sort them out when she got the time to do so after this mission.