A Survivor's life in the dungeon (A Danmachi Fanfic.)

Chapter 104

Helga was no slouch either. She might not be as good as Denki, but she could hold her own, not being left far behind by the three of them.

As a matter of fact, Helga's way of fighting was just efficient, only targeting the monsters close to her, saving her strength by not chasing and overextending. She had a space where if a monster entered, they would succumb to her claymore. Staying close to gods, she acted as the primary defender of them.

With one final roar, all of the monsters in the area were killed. The four sheathed their weapons and moved on, as if it was natural for them.

"So... This is where it happened, huh?" Denki asked as he kneeled down, picking up an empty bottle of potion. "Can you remember where they ran too?" he asked the three members of the Takemikazuchi familia.

"They headed towards that corridor," Ouka answered, pointing south. "After that, I'm not really sure; we were running as well."

The team made their way towards the south corridor, stopping in their tracks when they saw a dead end.

"A cave-in, huh..." Asfi looked around for any clues in the area, while Ryuu climbed on top of the boulders that were blocking their path.

"They aren't here anymore, and the trail looks old. But this is the right direction; they moved through here." She made her assessment as she jumped to the other side, kneeling and picking up more empty bottles of potions.

Asfi looked at Denki and nodded. "Looks like your theory is right; they did head further down, opting to dive deeper towards the 18th-floor safe zone."

"Yeah, and that's what I'm worried about." Denki grimaced, biting the nail on his thumb as he started to think. "So my plan is to have us split up here. This is the last-known location where Bell had likely gone through."

"I don't think that's a smart choice," Asfi disagreed. "While it may be true that splitting up to find him would be optimal, at this point, we have a clear goal of where he is heading. At the 18th floor. There are plenty of tunnels that go down inside the dungeon, and Bell has likely taken one of them. We won't be able to find him, even if we split up."

"So we head straight to the 18th floor?" Denki asked. "What if we miss him?"

"Then we split up from the 18th floor while climbing back to the surface; it would be much faster this way." Asfi kneeled to the ground, taking a map from her bag - one of her creations - and she set it up on the ground for everyone to see.

"As you can see, there are so many tunnels that Bell could have taken. Even with us splitting up, searching everything would take time. That's why I propose that we move as fast as we can towards the 18th-floor safe zone." She looked at everyone as she continued to explain her plan. "Once there, we can search for Bell. If he isn't there, we can leave the gods in the safe zone; this would allow us more freedom to search as quickly as we can coming back here on the 14th floor."

Denki nodded. Asfi's plan was sound; he even mentally kicked himself for not thinking of that earlier. "Very well. Let's move with haste, then."

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-16th floor

"Burn out, dark magic! Will-o-wisp!" Welf once again chanted his spell, killing another hellhound. Bell, who was supporting the red-headed blacksmith on his shoulder, felt him go limp.

"Welf?" He turned to the side and saw that Welf was now unconscious. "WELF!!!" He tried waking him up, but no matter what he did, he was out cold. "Mind zero... Lili, we need to m-" his words came to a halt; he felt a lump forming in his throat as he looked back and saw Lili lying face first on the ground. "Lili?! LILI?!!"

She was unconscious as well. Bell's face fell, as fear started to flood his heart; he was now truly alone, as both of his party were down for the count.

A sense of hopelessness filled his being, as the sound of the monsters inside the dungeon echoed all around him. But then, the voice of her goddess echoed inside his head. It lit the fire in his heart, and gritting his teeth, he rushed besides Lili, placing Welf softly on the ground. Using his dagger, he cut the large bag she was carrying, and with bated breath, he lifted her up.

He also lifted up Welf using his free hand, carrying his two party members in his hands. A look of determination plastered on his face; he won't allow them to die in this place.

His feet digging deep into the ground at every step he took, his muscles screaming for him to rest, but he knew that he must go on. A few more steps, he found another tunnel, leading further down. He took a deep breath, hyping himself up. And with a count of 3, he took the leap of faith, jumping down the tunnel, down to the 17th floor.

-To be continued.

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Chapter 104 is now complete. How are you all enjoying the story so far?

Sorry about not posting yesterday, was too tired from doing another over time, I swear if I didn't need the money, there's no way in hell that I'll be doing over time work. Hahaha.

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