Chapter Seventeen: The Shadow Cavern (3)

Passing through a curtain of red light, a steep staircase unfolded before him.

At the base of the stairs, four cave dwellers clad in leather armor and armed with spears and short swords heard Zhao Tianhe’s footsteps and spun around to charge at him. Clearly, the monsters on the second floor had grown stronger—their upgraded equipment made that evident—and their strength and agility had increased as well, making their movements and attacks faster and more forceful. If he were surrounded, Zhao Tianhe would be helpless, and if even one broke away, they could easily dispatch Lainis, the healer girl whose combat ability was virtually nonexistent.

“Come forth, Saber!” Zhao Tianhe shouted.

Summoning a combat spirit required no ritual or gesture—just a thought—but Zhao Tianhe did it for dramatic effect. In front of others, he chose not to call Artoria by her real name, using the code name Saber instead.

A figure clad in blue and white appeared out of thin air, swiftly advancing to meet the four cave dweller soldiers.

“Let me handle one!” Zhao Tianhe had no intention of leaving everything to Artoria. He drew his longsword and charged, facing a cave dweller armed with a battered short sword.

Using the advantage of his weapon’s length, Zhao Tianhe lunged directly for its throat. Yet the cave dweller raised its sword to deflect Zhao Tianhe’s attack upward and simultaneously flung a handful of sand from its left hand.

This was one of the second-floor cave dweller soldiers’ dirty tricks—throwing sand.

Zhao Tianhe, having read the manual, was prepared. The moment he saw the gesture, he shut his eyes and kicked forward.

The sensation of sand hitting his face faded. Zhao Tianhe reopened his eyes, squinting down the stairs.

The cave dweller soldier had tumbled all the way to the bottom, but was not badly injured and had already gotten to its feet.

Zhao Tianhe would not let it recover. He leapt down, landing in front of the monster, and brought his sword down in a heavy slash.

The cave dweller raised its sword to block, but its weapon was too shoddy. Zhao Tianhe’s jump-powered blow shattered it, driving his blade straight into the center of the creature’s forehead.

Done.

Zhao Tianhe turned, satisfied, to glance behind him, only to see Artoria standing on the staircase, smiling at him.

Of the three cave dweller soldiers she faced, two had been decapitated, and one was cleaved in half across the chest.

All this from a single swing of Artoria’s sword.

It was to be expected; she could easily slay multiple mutated elite slimes, and these E-rank dungeon mobs were mere ordinary monsters—nothing compared to those elite mutants.

Lainis, who had just entered the second floor, watched Artoria’s spectacular triple kill, gasping in shock.

Her instincts—or rather, the scene she had just witnessed—told her that the beautiful girl who had appeared out of nowhere was far stronger than her former captain, Kentor.

“You’ve improved,” Artoria said with a satisfied smile as she walked down the stairs. “See? If you try, you can do it.”

“Yes!” Zhao Tianhe nodded, pulling a bag of crispy rice snacks from his pouch. “Spicy and five-spice flavor, mixed. I made them myself.”

Artoria dispelled her magical armor on her left hand, took the snack, which was still warm thanks to the preservation spell, and tasted it.

“Mmm, not bad. I think it’s even better than the pure spicy flavor,” she nodded, pleased, munching as she walked.

“Brother Zhao, Brother Zhao! Who is this? Where did she come from?” Lainis hurried forward, grabbing Zhao Tianhe’s wrist.

“This is my talent—summoning…old acquaintances, heroic spirits from other worlds!” Zhao Tianhe replied with a smile. “I may be pretty useless myself, but my connections are vast! This is Saber, a powerful melee heroic spirit with a first-tier warrior’s strength!”

“Otherworldly heroic spirit…hmm…come to think of it, she does look familiar…” Lainis watched Artoria, feeling a sense of déjà vu. After all, she had played as Artoria Alter in the game yesterday.

Games were games, of course. The famous face, projected into reality, remained ethereal and beautiful, like a fairy untouched by the world, yet it was difficult to connect her with the game’s illustrations. If Lainis ever drew the original Artoria in the future, the outfit alone would let her recognize the true identity instantly.

With Artoria’s help, the entire second floor was cleared in less than twenty minutes.

Upon entering the third floor, the environment shifted. The stone forest of the first two levels gave way to a vast cavern with a flat floor.

In the distance, a stone structure over four meters tall stood at the center of the third floor, surrounded by nearly a hundred small, scattered stone huts.

Several cave dwellers, neatly armored in leather and standing a head taller at one and a half meters, patrolled with gleaming spears and short swords.

This was the third floor of the Shadow Cavern—the cave dweller territory. Here, the monsters grew significantly stronger. Every week, over ten mutated elites would spawn, and every few months, the dungeon boss—the cave dweller chieftain—could appear.

If the dungeon boss appeared, Kentor would gather the other two teams from Rogue Town for a joint assault. The gap between boss-level and mutated elites was even wider than that between elites and ordinary monsters.

But today, only about twenty enhanced ordinary monsters were present.

“Saber, the rest are yours,” Zhao Tianhe said, pointing at a cave dweller guard with a spear and smiling.

“Understood, Master.” Artoria tossed aside the empty snack wrapper, summoned her magical armor, and charged ahead.

After Artoria dispatched four cave dweller guards, Zhao Tianhe was still locked in combat with another.

Watching the battle, Artoria was tempted to offer advice, but seeing Lainis in the distance, she decided to let Zhao Tianhe keep his dignity and strode toward the stone huts.

The guards inside the huts heard the commotion outside and began to emerge.

“Strange, we just cleared this yesterday—why are there so many today?” Lainis frowned in confusion at the number of cave dwellers emerging from the stone hut area. “More than thirty…huh?!”

Lainis’s heart skipped a beat, for she saw a towering figure nearly two meters tall emerge from the largest stone house.

“It’s a cave dweller warrior! Miss Saber, be careful!” Lainis quickly shouted a warning to Artoria.

Hearing this, Zhao Tianhe finished off the guard he’d been fighting and looked over.

The creature was clad in metal chainmail, its physique as muscular as a human bodybuilding champion. It dragged a pale red warhammer, and a faint aura of blood slowly emanated from its body, sending chills down the spine.