“….Lemon-butter pasta? With anchovies? Well I guess that more or less settles the matter of this clearly being some kind of an illusion, and that you’ve got a very odd sense of taste in food.”

How odd, it seemed that what he perceived as one thing was in fact something else entirely. To think that someone in here managed to trick both his sense of sight and his sense of smell meant that he needed to really start focusing on getting better at ‘sniffing out’ illusions by increasing his own means of sensory to counter it. It was one of those things where he honestly felt like he was lacking, severely. Finding the use of illusions a tool for cowards and assassins, which were by his own account also considered to be cowards as they never engaged someone man to man, Gawain understood that he would need to figure out how it worked if he was to ever work out a proper countermeasure. But that was neither here nor there, as the subject was likely going to come up again in the near future if he was to keep doing the things he did.

Believing that the food they saw was an illusion that likely played into their likes and wants, the fact that he saw two of his favorite foods while Kingsley saw tiny fish and sour pasta seemed to more or less affirm this belief. With Kingsley coming to the same conclusion that this was in all likeliness an illusion, he went about looking for the thing that awaited them in the end. After all, that was how a dungeon worked. Every single one of them he had been into so far had a monster awaiting him in the end, a fiend that needed slaying so the dungeon could be destabilized for a while and render the surrounding area ‘safe’ for some time. But safety did not truly exist in this world, meaning all the magic knights could truly offer was the idea of safety and hope that people would end up buying it. And the only way to sell safety was by eradicating threats like these, for however long they’d stay eradicated.

“Ugh, you’d almost wish that whatever creature calls this dungeon their domain would have been less of a coward. Between false promises of good food and everyone who ventured in here before us already being dead, it’s a bit of a bummer and a tease.”

Responding to how Kingsley uncovered a hidden passage by tugging at some roots, his sentence was more or less disturbed halfway through by the inconsiderate screaming of a mandrake. Shooting the thing right through the head and silencing it forever with a compressed air bullet, the young man just looked at the remaining three with a mostly blank expression as he wandered forward into the cavern entrance. With him being told to take care of the problem, he honestly didn’t have much of a problem with it. They had already established that he was by far the most capable of death and destruction, so having to tally up some additional kills wouldn’t make that much of a difference to him in the slightest. Besides, these monsters were more plant than creature, so they more than likely did not experience things such as pain and fear. But just in case they did, they were about to experience a whole lot of it before the end.

FLOOR 2 | BOSS ROOM

Entering in what could only be the last space existing within this damn cavern, the very first thing Gawain saw was a woman that just stood there. She had clearly waited for them, likely being aware of everything that had been going on up until the moment they arrived. After all, there was someone that had been controlling the golems that stood guard outside of the cavern, and with everything else in this place being some sort of monster, that narrowed down the options quite a bit. Since he was more or less constantly scanning his surroundings through the use of Ki, there was no fooling him. When it came to these kinds of physical transformations, he would not fall for it. Tossing the mangled remains of three mandrakes into the room after he had physically murdered them by tearing them apart limb from limb, one might have considered the act quite gruesome. Then again, these were hostile, flesh-eating plants, they did not have any feelings and were worth no second thoughts.

At this point, Gawain was under no kind of delusion, knowing full well what this woman was. He could see through the ruse quite clearly, allowing him to see her for what she was and not even seeing any sort of illusory guise to begin with. But she did not need to know that, not yet. With his hands still dripping from the goo that leaked out from the mandrakes he had murdered, he wandered over to where the scary lady stood. Maintaining the guise that whatever illusion she was casting worked, he wondered whether or not Kingsley would be able to perceive things for what they were himself. He knew that they had both seen the food as whatever it was in their mind, so he wasn’t entirely sure about it, as Gawain’s own means of countering this situation did not stem from being able to pierce mana-based guises but from something far more instinctual.

“Say, you wouldn’t happen to be the person that made that delicious food back there were you? I have to say, it’s been a long time since someone cooked steak that well. Are you being held here against your will?”

For a moment, it remained quiet as it seemed the hag was trying to figure out whether or not her ruse had been penetrated by a more powerful sensor. But seeing as how Gawain showed none of the tell-tale signs of faking, she seemed to be more willing to go along with it. She was clever in that sense, as all of the defenses put up in this place had been maneuvered through by the party, so she could likely tell that the two of them were at least capable of that much. But dealing with a cave spider or a golem, or dealing with a hag were two different things altogether. In truth, Gawain didn’t really know what a hag was. Whether they were their own species, if they were originally human but evolved or devolved into a new state of being, he simply did not possess that knowledge. What he did know however was that he had encountered a kind of hag before on Skjaergard, one that had been kidnapping and killing children to stay young.

When that one had tried to snatch him from his bed, it had made a mistake in letting Gawain know about its existence. Once he was aware of it, he had been chasing it like a bloodhound tracking a scent across the island. When he finally put it to death, his only real regret had been that he hadn’t been able to save some of the kids. As such, it took him some small amount of effort to conceal the fact that he quite hated hags and wanted to tear her apart with his own two hands. But for now, he wanted to make sure Kingsley could see through the illusion so he wouldn’t end up getting tricked by similar situations in the future. Dungeons were dangerous things, and if all the guy would see was Gawain casting a spell on what seemed like a civilian, that wouldn’t really fly over well.

“Why yes I did. Those monsters locked me in here, and I couldn’t get past the spiders. Why they left me with ingredients to cook with, I’m not sure. Have you come to save me?”

And right she was. It was weird that there would have been ingredients down here with which to construct the sometimes elaborate dishes people enjoyed. The pasta for instance that Kingsley brought up or the Takoyaki, finding what one needed to craft those down inside of a cavern were unlikely, bordering on the impossible and could not be explaining away easily. And clearly that was why she did not try to bring the point home and instead decided to talk over it in the way that she had. Honestly, that was by far the most clever way of going about it, as he would more than likely have done the same were he in a similar situation. He had been unfortunate enough to have been used as a weapon plenty of times, and the blood of people he knew nothing about stained his hands from a very young age. And when you were neither strong nor well trained, one had to improvise, adapt and overcome. And pretend. And lie.

“We have! We’re with the magic knights of Clover. We tried to save the other civilians as well, but they were unfortunately eaten by the same plant monsters that guarded your room. You were lucky they didn’t feed on you too. So you’d better come with us and we’ll leave this vile place behind us as quickly as possible.”

Gesturing at her to come to him and then to Kingsley that the coast was clear, it was likely that the hag believed that this was her most opportune time to strike. Wandering over to Gawain with a smile on her face as though pretending to eagerly be saved, once she was close, she brought out a dagger in an attempt at stabbing the boy in the neck. Because even when one was a powerful mage, once one’s neck and throat got gouged, that would be the end for a good lot of them. But Gawain was under no illusion, as he used his Ki to assess the danger along with his superior speed. Evading the dagger entirely as he maneuvered around, placing her in a headlock before snapping her neck, the loud crunch resounded throughout the cavern. Then, as though making sure she was dead, a quick twist and tug caused her entire head to become dislodged from her shoulders. At this rate, he was sure that if Kingsley had been under an illusion, he would be able to see her true face.

Holding on to it for a second before tossing it away into the dark corners of the cave, he looked towards Kingsley with a smug expression. He was not concerned with the situation in the slightest. In fact, he was quite proud that he had been able to perceive an illusion for what it was and managed to rip someone’s head off. It proved that his physical strength had begun improving beyond what he had been capable of before, which was really a good thing. It meant that he was more than ready to start taking on foes of greater renown in melee brawls. Covered by the spray of blood resulting with the prior decapitation, one could honestly say that he was covered in the muck and grime of literally everything that existed inside of this cavern, which might have been a somewhat notable achievement of some kind.

“Well… I guess that settles that! So what were you saying about clothes?”



WC: 1835
Room WC: 1255
Total WC: 10579