Horus stopped and tilted his head towards the Knight boy, whose hands strayed towards his sword. He didn't take any offence to the action, but it did make him curious of what they were scared of.
The boy glanced at his hand and retracted it. "Sorry, I don't know what came over me."
"See, I told you. You're a lot scarier up close," June smirked. Her fiery hair was reined back in a bun, and her round glasses were nowhere to be seen. Her silver eyes seemed milky and unfocused without them.
Horus looked her up and down. "And you don't look ready for a fight."
Jube looked over her outfit. The long, loose skirt and the flowing grey coat. Her eyes scrunched up in confusion.
"What's wrong with what I'm wearing? Or are you making fun of my face?"
"Your face is adequate," Horus replied. "But you aren't dressed for a fight. You're going to say you won't fight on the frontline," He guessed.
June raised an eyebrow but nodded reluctantly.
"If you meet ten Firespitters in a tunnel, what will you do? For a group of four, my guess is run. Can you run in those clothes?"
The darkness hid June's flushed face. She turned in defiance, with nothing to say.
"You should ask if she can even run," Wally jabbed, before walking over to shake him, ignoring his sister's glare.
"Where's John? He's not in this dungeon?"
"Everyone is in this dungeon," June said before he could answer. She waved her phone. "We get some shitty reception from whatever the military setup. Everyone is talking about it on the forum.
Then John wasn't just here yet.
"Most people are on the First floor," the spear wielder, Jenneth, added awkwardly. "John might be up there."
"You guys know John?" Horus asked first.
"Most of us here got that scholarship to Formation school in Fort Thunder like Wally," June said with folded hands and a frown. "I'm pretty sure you would know Elle? You guys had the same homeroom."
June pointed at the Water mage, who stared at him indifferently. So this was just a Horus forgetting everyone thing. That seemed to happen a lot more recently. He sighed.
"Sorry about that. But when you guys go up, can you help us ask around for him?"
"We actually wanted to help you guys," June said, despite her friends already nodding. Elle poked June with her staff, but she ignored it.
Wally glanced from June to Horus and smirked mischievously; happy that someone she couldn't ignore would be telling her off.
Horus shook his head. "We don't need your help. We've trained together for years, adding new people would just mess up our rhythm."
June opened her mouth to argue, but closed it almost immediately, her eyes widened as she pointed behind him.
"There's a Firespitter—"
"I know," Horus said.
He heard it coming from one of the tunnels, it was a couple of meters away and alone. The entire room turned on the metallic beast.
Its body hummed with a fiery breath, unbothered that it was facing a room of almost thirty Awakeners.
Horus spun and drew his sword at once, attacking before anyone else, and the Firespitter responded with three plumes of flame.
"Horus, what—" Wally yelled as Horus jumped into the flames.
He used [Twilight Body] and the [Fading] sub skill together. His body disappeared through the flames and reappeared when he landed on the back of the Firespitter, plunging his blade through its back like it was made of mist.
The beast fell unceremoniously, Horus retrieved his sword and returned it to his scabbard without a word.
When he turned, he found everyone still staring at him. He was untouched by the flames, and his curved blade, not suited for stabbing, easily penetrated the monster's body.
There was one explanation.
"He has it."
"But we were all there."
"It's Horus, maybe he doesn't even need the class to use its skills! He used one of the skills as an unawakened kid."
"Yeah! In the duel with his older brother."
Horus ignored them. He had the skills, and there was no point in hiding it. This was who he had always wanted to be after all.
But he still remembered their faces from the Awakening hall. He remembered the confusion, distaste and even anger. Something tightened inside him.
Wally and the others walked over while he carved open the monster.
He raised his head to meet June's eyes again. "As I said, we don't need your help."
●——●
Soon, Horus and Wally were following Shiv's maps down the tunnels. The monsters had carved out these tunnels, stabilising them with metallic residue. They sloped and turned repeatedly.
They took things slow. Sliding down, climbing up and squeezing through what felt like hell. All while Horus listened intently for the sound of a Firespitter.
Many times, he thought he heard their thrumming breaths or heavy footsteps nearby and felt muscle tense at the thought of fighting in the narrow tunnel.
But they made it to the next section safely without any encounters this time.
They climbed out of a hole into a wide, road-like section of the dungeon.
"This is still the second floor," Wally muttered, checking the map. "Down from here, we should find an underground oasis. Where some Greenjaws are protecting Lim-ne… I can't pronounce that."
Horus tapped Wally's shoulder. He already knew enough. If Shiv highlighted it on her map, it was expensive, and they were strong enough to win a fight to get it.
Wally was also in the Tank class. [Templar], but he had sworn no oaths yet. Horus could tell the class irritated him as they walked.
It was too restrictive. He wondered why the system even thought such a Class would suit Wally, who loved freedom and speed.
Even now, Wally's stride was too wide and hurried, not ready in case of a sneak attack.
"Measure your steps," Horus said, laughing a little. "Tank really doesn't suit you."
"I was so ready for Assassin, even Thief or goddamn Rogue would have been better," Wally muttered.
The system gave you what you were most suited to at that time. If you trained all your life to be a Swordsman, you would get a Swordsman class. If you studied magic and meditated to control energy and breath, you'd get a magic class.
"What Quest did you get?" Horus asked, thinking about something.
"Travel 2500 meters in the dungeon you spawn in and provide help to three people, Adept-tier quest," Wally replied automatically, eyes unfocused and distant. "What about you?"
"Kill One Adept-tier Firespitter and collect Ten millilitres of Black mercury."