Cherreads

Chapter 6 - First floor sweeping

"Tap… tap… tap," Axel walked down the corridor with brick walls on both sides and a few torches hanging far apart. The scent of earth and a damp space greeted Axel's nose, though it wasn't overwhelming. Behind him, the five female wraiths floated, following him, their eyes fixed on him.

"Hmm… this is the weakness of an RPG novel game… there's no map because the characters just walk by themselves and suddenly they've reached their destination and start talking… no wonder a lot of people didn't like it. And now I have no idea where to go inside this twisting, labyrinth-like underground area," Axel muttered in his head.

Although grumbling in his head, Axel kept walking straight down the corridor until he finally reached a four-way intersection. Axel immediately looked right, then left, and finally straight ahead. Suddenly, "tuk… tuk," his shoulder was tapped again from behind. Axel turned and spun around, seeing the five wraiths behind him calling him.

"What is it now?" Axel asked.

"I'm going right," Sharon said, immediately floating and shooting off to the right.

"I'll take the left path," Bella added, immediately floating and shooting off to the left.

"I'm going straight," Hailey added, immediately shooting past Axel, who turned around and watched her disappear down the corridor in front.

"Just wait here for a bit, okay?" Avery said.

"Yeah, when they get back, we'll know the way to the next level," Valerie added.

"Oh… okay," Axel replied. "Huh… they're actually really helping me out," Axel muttered in his heart.

Not long after, "They're back," Avery said. Axel looked right and saw Sharon returning, bringing a swarm of zombies. Axel looked left and saw Bella coming with an army of living skeletons. Hailey shot past Axel, and behind her flew a host of large, blood-sucking bats.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Axel exclaimed.

Seeing three armies approaching from three directions, Axel immediately thought hard and finally spread his arms and closed his eyes. Hundreds of red magic circles instantly opened in the air, surrounding him.

"Blood arrow rain,"

"Psiu," "srrrgh," the hundreds of magic circles in the air immediately fired blood-light arrows like machine gun fire into all three directions, wiping out all the incoming forces. "Graaaaaah," "klak… klak," "skrieeeeeeek," a deafening shriek came from the three different forces as the blood-light arrows struck them. After all the enemies were dead and the remaining blood-light arrows stuck in the ground, "blugh," Axel fell to one knee, exhausted.

"Axel!" the five wraiths screamed behind him in alarm.

"Huf… huf… I'm fine… I just used too much Spirit," Axel mumbled.

He immediately pulled up his status and looked at the holographic screen displaying his stats in front of his face.

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Name : Axelirius Von Aldrich (Axel).

Age : 15.

Race : Half vampire / Dhampir.

Level : 30 level up to 250 / 9999 (1000 / 125,500).

Health : 800 / 800 up to 5,200.

Spirit : 100 / 400 up to 2,600.

STR : 600 up to 5,000. (moon relic set + 1000)

AGI : 600 up to 5,000. (moon relic set + 1000)

STA : 600 up to 5,000. (moon relic set + 1000)

LUC : 600 up to 5,000.

********************************************

"Congratulations," the five wraiths behind Axel said.

"Haaah… but next time, please warn me first! I need to recover quickly so I'm ready if there are more enemies," Axel said.

"I brought everything on the right here," Sharon said.

"Same here, everything on the left too," Bella added.

"I also brought all the enemies straight ahead, so it should be safe now," Hailey added.

"Oh… I see," Axel mumbled. Then he looked over and noticed only three wraiths were behind him. "Where are Valerie and Avery?" Axel asked.

"Over there," the three wraiths replied.

Axel looked forward and saw the two wraiths, Valerie and Avery, circling around, picking up the loot dropped by the enemies, and returning with the items. "Bwuuung," a holographic screen opened in front of Axel's face.

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Inventory list :

1. Healing potion (M) x 20.

2. Spirit potion (M) x 50.

3. Elixir (S) x 1.

4. Crude short sword hilt (loot item) x 10.

5. Broken buckler (loot item) x 7.

6. Relic stone (craft) x 1.

7. Lucky pendant (relic) x 1.

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Axel immediately looked at his inventory. He tapped on the Lucky Pendant to equip it, then looked at his status again.

********************************************

Name : Axelirius Von Aldrich (Axel).

Age : 15.

Race : Half vampire / Dhampir.

Level : 250 / 9999 (1000 / 125,500).

Health : 3,800 / 5,200.

Spirit : 1,100 / 2,600.

STR : 5,000. (moon relic set + 1000)

AGI : 5,000. (moon relic set + 1000)

STA : 5,000. (moon relic set + 1000)

LUC : 5,000 (Lucky pendant + 200).

********************************************

Magic Relic :

1. Blood moon gun of darkness.

2. Blood moon long sword of darkness.

3. Blood moon chain leather armor of darkness.

4. Blood moon iron gauntlets of darkness.

5. Blood moon iron greaves of darkness.

6. NEW Lucky pendant.

********************************************

"Hmm… thanks, guys," Axel mumbled, standing up and drinking a Spirit Potion.

"You're welcome," the five wraiths in front of him replied, looking pleased and clearly hoping for praise.

Seeing the five women looking genuinely happy and now sincerely helping him, Axel finally gave them a reward by placing his hand on each of their heads, one by one. After that, he turned and started walking again, followed by the five wraiths who were smiling frighteningly wide and looked overjoyed. After passing through a quiet, empty path with no enemies, Axel finally reached a gateway where the stone door was already open, with stairs leading down. He took a deep breath, then stepped down.

As soon as he reached the bottom, he walked through another long, labyrinth-like corridor.

"How many floors does this dungeon have?" Sharon asked.

"This crypt basement goes down to floor 10. The boss room is at the very bottom, and if we can defeat the boss, we can get a good relic. That's how it was in the game. This boss is also part of the main plot because one of the protagonist's travel companions has to kill the boss for revenge. This crypt is also where Desmond disappeared when he reached floor 3. That's our destination—finding out where Desmond vanished to," Axel answered.

"Who is the boss here, anyway?" Valerie asked.

"The Dullahan," Axel replied.

"Oh… the headless knight?" Bella asked.

"You know about that, huh?" Axel answered.

"You liked stuff like that… so I learned. I'm sorry… I should have gone to college with you in the other city… I'm sorry," Bella said, looking down.

"Yeah, you should have… look, don't bring it up again. It's all in the past," Axel countered. "Please don't remind me of painful things and bring back what I've long thrown out of my heart," Axel thought to himself.

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