The second floor was similar to the first one as it was mostly spiders with one or two undead walking around.
But starting on the third floor, spiders stopped appearing and the only monsters around were undead.
Every room had either zombies or skeletons, or both at the same time.
Because skeletons were too difficult for me, I stuck to only attacking zombies.
I developed a nice attack pattern with Enrick. Where either one of us would leave the zombie weakened, and the other would finish it.
Just like in this very room.
I quickly stepped past a zombie, slashing off his arm.
"Now!"
"Aaagh!" Enrick thrusted his sword forward, piercing the zombie's head.
A second zombie got in front of me.
I jumped back behind Enrick, the knight with a shield of the party.
He defended the zombie's attack with his shield and shoved it away.
I quickly advanced beside the redhead leader and sliced the zombie's head.
On the other side of the room, Eusta used his strength to attack the zombies with better results than what both Enrick and I could achieve.
"Dark hand, crush my enemies"
"[Dark Hand]"
Agatha casted a spell, and from her book came out a pitch black and misty hand that slowly grabbed the skull of a skeletons, shattering into pieces.
"Sacred light, purge these monsters"
"[Undead Purge]"
The blonde fox eared swung her staff as a bat and a beam of light shot at a zombie, piercing it and all the other undead behind it.
Thanks to the effectiveness of light magic against undead monsters, Vi had no problems against them.
"Two more groups behind them, all skeletons!" I told my teammates as I backed down, letting Eusta and Enrick on the front line.
"I know this the third level, but they're a lot more than we expected!" Vi sighed as she got behind the Enrick-Eusta wall of protection.
"They're still easy to deal with" Agatha added as she looked at the two groups approaching us.
Eusta dropped on of his axes.
"Rocks of the highest mountains, reshape yourself onto a form that is able to protect me"
"[Rocky Shield]"
A spiked rock shield formed at Eusta's forearm.
"Sacred light, purge these monsters"
"[Undead Purge]"
Vi swung a beam of light right between Eusta and Enrick's head, killing most of the skeletons on those two groups.
"Thanks Vi!"
"If you can't deal with them, at least be useful and collect the mana stones of the ones we've already defeated"
Agatha ordered me in a less than gentle tone.
But she was right, I can't deal with skeletons.
I did as she told me and started collecting the mana stones, looking back at the group to see if they needed my help.
"Northern winds, attack"
Because I haven't had time to reserve my four spells before meeting them, i started chanting the incantations whenever I was alone.
I reserved a strong sandstorm, a strong wind ram, and two quick northern wind weapon spells.
I know sandstorm isn't the best option here, because undead don't see like us, they can only see mana.
But when I managed to get my second circle, I saw how it changed the outer mana around an area surrounding me. So would that mean that they'd only see a spot of my own mana?
In the game, undead didn't really get affected by any spell like sandstorm. But that was in the game, and I've tried weirder strategies.
"A recall stone? It's the fifth one I find"
Recall stones are useful because they can get a unit out of a dungeon on a dangerous situation, no matter the floor that unit is.
It's weird that they appear on this kind of dungeon, though. This is the kind of item a higher dungeon gives, not a lower level dungeon.
"Is there something wrong Alen?" Vi asked me.
I see how they've already finished fighting against those two groups of skeletons and started collecting the items and mana stones.
"It's just that the items we find are way too rare for a low-level dungeon"
On this third floor, we even found stunning mines, flash bombs, and gear that goes beyond what this dungeon should drop.
"While it is certainly uncommon for this quality of items to drop on a low-level dungeon, it's not impossible" she held out her finger and smiled at me.
"I guess you're right... but it's weird that we got this lucky"
"I think we're lucky to have gotten this lucky"
I chuckled at her optimism, but I quickly noticed something.
She's the only one to not be picking up the items and mana stones.
"Start picking up these things Vi-" the red-haired leader got silenced by Eusta before he could finish up what he was about to say.
"My job is to pray for those poor souls that died and started walking again after their death" the fox eared girl only held a single hand up on a half prayer and winked at the redhead.
"And where are your prayers!"
"A prayer doesn't always need to be said out loud, I can silently pray from the bottom of my heart"
"That's not a thing!"
While their bickering continued, I looked at Agatha.
She's way different than what I remember. In the game, she was way more shy, even more than Kaida on the first week.
And she wasn't able to cast all those spells on the game.
Occult room, for example, is a tier three spell.
And in the game, she came with only tier two magic when you first recruited her.
What happened to her.
And who are these people. Enrick, Eusta, Vi... those aren't characters in the game.
There should be an explanation.
"C'mon man" Enrick gestured me with his hand to follow him, as we should be getting to the next floor.
Enrick definitely softened up to me on this exploration.
"What're you looking at?" Agatha asked me in a harsh tone of voice.
"Nothing, you seem... different"
"Ohoho, that means she certainly likes to be around you"
"Agatha isn't good when meeting new people" Eusta added with a chuckle.
"When we first met, she always hid behind Vi"
"She's more bossy than she seems at a first glance" Vi added before she got elbowed by Agatha.
"I'm not" the dark mage crossed her arms.
But, even when you increased a unit's relationship with her, she never opened up to be bossy.
Actually, her whole character revolved around a memory loss.
Hellen Goldenlaw, one of the characters she can interact with, talked about an incident.
But no matter where you looked for, nothing related to that incident was found on the game.
I lied... Lila Versam, the leader of the golden troupe, mentioned how her own descent started by one incident.
It was speculated that the incident Lila was talking about was related to Agatha's incident.
But nothing was found.
___________
On Aurum Academy, arena six.
"That fight was amazing, princess Von Themys"
Cecil said, trying to catch his breath.
"Shut up..."
Fran, who was equally as dirty and sweaty as Cecil, could barely stand on her own two feet.
They spent all afternoon training on arena six.
Right now, Cecil was lying on the ground. He lost this battle against the princess. But he won more fights overall, making him the winner for today.
A towel fell on both of their faces, towels brought by the prince of the Raychmen kingdom, Theo Der Botcam.
"I don't know how you two can fight that much"
"You did what I told you, crybaby?" Fran asked in a cold tone as she wiped her forehead with the towel.
"I-I did... no one saw Alen leave, and he still hasn't returned" Theo took a step back, trying to create distance between him and Fran.
"Hum" the white-haired princess crossed her arms and pouted.
"I'll make sure he regrets leaving me today"
"You sure seem to appreciate Mr. Alen a lot" Cecil claimed with a calm smile as he looked up at the sky.
"Wha-?" Fran blushed at Cecil's comment.
"I-I don..." she didn't finish her sentence.
"But why do you like him though. I know you said he's interesting. But what's the difference between him and everyone else?"
Theo silently nodded at the question his bodyguard posed, as he found it weird how different she acted with Alen compared to everyone else.
"Th-that's... none of your concern" she pointed at both boys.
"Unlike you two... and every other peasant around, he's different"
"We're not peasants though" Theo whispered to himself, hoping that the princess doesn't hear him.
"Then you should go easy on him"
"Huh?"
"Yesterday he spent his last remaining coins on us. And, while Aurum Academy provides class S with a lot, it isn't exactly free"
"If... he's struggling, he simply could just ask me for money and I'd gladly help him with whatever he needs" She looked away, trying to hide her red face behind her white hair.
"We'd also help him, right my liege?"
"Sure Cecil" the prince just wanted his bodyguard to feel happy.
"And if we both will help Alen whenever he needs us, doesn't that make us all friends?" Cecil asked with a calm tone as he stood up.
"Hum" the princess turned around.
The fact that she didn't say no was more than enough to Cecil.
________