Return to Jorgaldur Volume III: blood warrior

In group: seventh floor

"These cells should only be owned by imperial guards," Kroco frowned while examining the artifact.

"They were human, they can't be," Kruloz observed.

"Perhaps, they've killed one, or stolen it. They may be wanted criminals. From their actions, it seems most likely," Kroquia deduced.

"You can get a nice reward!" Krongo exclaimed.

"Too many problems. You guys can take care of it when we get back," the vampiress refused.

She had more money than she could possibly need. In fact, it was something that she hadn't confessed to her companions. The amount of gold accumulated during the game was exorbitant even for the entire county, even for a kingdom. Not to mention legendary materials and weapons.

"We'll keep the reward for you," Krinia offered.

"No, no, take it. I don't need it," she refused again.

It took a bit for Gjaki to convince the mage. She had to promise that she would return one day. They already knew that she would most likely leave after her visit to the dungeon. Gjaki intended to return when she was strong enough to have nothing to fear.

For her part, Kroquia took the exit portals from the corpses. She used one of them to send a capsule outside, in which she had written a message for her parents. Anyone else who tried to open it would destroy it.

The centipedes were dangerous, and one level higher than the enemies in the previous floor. Due to this, the reptilians could hardly deal with one, while exhausting almost all of their resources. Still, it was a good experience and training for them. If they were caught in Tentacles, it was much easier.

To Gjaki, they were a somewhat annoying adversary. Their entire body could lengthen, twist, retract, and it had sharp legs. Furthermore, their movements were fast.

After many tests, the most efficient way she found was to use two hounds to hold each of their ends. After that, both she and her companions could attack quite safely, though they had to be quick, or they would break free.

The main problem was that she often had to renew the summons, with the consequent spending on mana and blood. Tentacles was even more efficient, but it wasn't always easy to catch them, to get them in the trap. They had a bad habit of climbing up walls and ceilings, though Krinia's electric attacks could sometimes knock them down.

Occasionally, as she was doing now, Gjaki preferred to confront them directly. She said that it was for training, although the reality was that she enjoyed it.

She was running over the half a meter wide centipede as it was curling around itself to try to catch her, when she stopped in her tracks. To do so, the vampiress fell on the body of her enemy. Then, she plunged both daggers into the seam of two of the insect's multiple sections. Not only it was damaged, but she could grab her weapons to brake.

Each of these sections were armored, and had a leg on each side. It was these attachment points that could move, thus allowing the body to writhe. They were also one of their weak points.

She thus avoided the centipede's attack, which had tried to bite her, and only reached the void. Also, its weird head got kicked hard. The kick included a dagger thanks to Surprise Dagger.

The vampiress then dropped her weapons, jumped to the head and pierced the bases of both antennae at once, each with one hand, by using Spearhead.

The centipede disappeared, and she turned to her companions, unable to erase the satisfied smile from her mouth.

"Nobody believes you do it to train," Krinia reproached her, although she was rather admired.

"It's been amazing," Krongo praised her.

"It's clear you're doing it to show off," Kruloz laughed.

"It's fine with me," Kroco assured.

"Ha, ha. Let her have some fun," Kroquia laughed.

Gjaki blushed slightly. It was evident that she hadn't succeeded in fooling them even for a moment. Everyone laughed when they noticed it, which only corroborated that assumption.

However, far from feeling bad, she felt strangely comforted. Gjaki found it somewhat strange that she had made more friends in that world than in her native one. Besides, they were goblins and reptilian beings, whereas her experience with humans hadn't been very good so far.

Despite that, she looked away and started walking, thus causing more comments and jeers behind her back. She felt a little more embarrassed, but her smile didn't leave her face.

There were some individual battles, some in a group, and many insects were simply exterminated with the help of the hounds. Thanks to that, she reached level 42.

The recovered spell, Blood Bind, allows to quickly bind someone with blood. It can be said that it is an evolution of Blood Control for a specific use. However, the binding isn't very strong, and can easily be broken by warriors at the same level, or by some spells.

Blood Link is a skill that allows biting someone to mark them instead of consuming their blood. Thanks to this mark, its location can be known, and if they are in danger.

The floor's boss wasn't a centipede but a millipede, or so it was called in the game. It was a little over one and a half meters in diameter, and over forty in length. It has an uncountable number of legs, or at least Gjaki had no intention of counting them.

It wasn't an easy boss nor did it have any great weaknesses. As the smaller versions, the joints of its sections were its weakest point, but it wasn't easy to exploit as they moved continuously.

It could climb the ceiling, walls or go on the ground. Given its size, it could even do all at once. Its jaws and acid were dangerous, but not as much as its legs, or its ability to coil around its prey, almost like a snake. Also, it was fast and agile.

Surely, it was too dangerous for the ezihuq, so they had no choice but to stay away, no matter their frustration at no being able to help. Nonetheless, they couldn't deny that they were in a place beyond their means. Therefore, facing that boss would be almost suicide.

The vampiress entered alone, ready to face the challenge, as she had done in the game in the past. In fact, it was one of the few bosses she had failed against in her first try, though a lot had happened since then.