Dungeon Diver: Stealing a Monster's Power

Chapter 104

The white light begins to dissipate and I open my eyes to see a single hunter in front of me.

I gulp and look around.

"Arie... Where are the others...?"

He's sitting on a large rock covered in moss about 2m off the ground. There's incredibly lush plant life all as far as the eye can see. The twisting green vines cover the dungeon floor with small blooming red, pink, and white flowers. There are blue and purple berries dangling from thick bushes and short yellow-tinted assortments of shrubbery all around us.

I walk forward hesitantly past a massive tree wrapped in plant life with arching branches that cover our view of the sky above.

Arie responds with a neutral tone.

"You're the first to come out. Well, aside from me at least."

He shows me a light smile, then looks up at the jungle's canopy to take in the view.

As I begin to respond, a white light flashes behind us. Maria's voice rings out and I let out a sigh of relief as I turn to see her wide grin.

"Now that was an annoying little creature. It wasn't that strong... it just took forever to wear it down!"

I nod.

"Yeah, tricky one."

Arie lets out a small chuckle and a sigh of his own.

"It was like all the others, one shot, and the boss is dead."

He bends one leg upwards to rest his arm on his knee while continuing to sit atop the boulder. The cloaked figure stares at both of us curiously while placing his chin down into the bent arm covering the lower half of his face. The only visible features are his light blue eyes and short silver hair.

A flash of light appears once again, and the green-haired healer comes flying out. Maria is the first to greet her.

"Abby!! You made it!!"

She glows bright while healing the massive cuts and blunt force wounds covering her body. She grins and looks up at us.

"What a great fight. That thing was creepy, but it could manipulate rock too so I finally got to go all out with my combat magic!"

She scratches her head, then continues.

"Oh- Maria, about those MP potions... I kind of used them all.

Maria laughs and lightly slaps her on the back.

"Hey, we're on the last floor, who cares? I had a feeling you'd use them anyways."

They both walk off over to a small flowing creek about 10m away chuckling about something, not all the details are clear to me. I take a deep breath in and out while staring at the swirling portal at the dungeon's entrance. Arie does the same with his fierce, yet concerned unmoving eyes.

We sit and stand in silence for another 2 minutes straight. My heart pounds faster and faster the longer our wait goes on. I'm not particularly worried about anything bad happening, both Bruce and Nessa have their bracelets on. If they lose this battle, they'll just be sent back to the respawn point.

It's just... This is the first time I've worked together with a group of people as a team and actually enjoyed it. I'd really like to at least see it through to the end of this exam.

I gulp and continue to stare at the portal in front of me as the seconds pass by ever so slowly.

The tree branches sway in the artificial dungeon breeze, Maria and Abby laugh off in the distance by the stream, and the vines around the jungle floor twist and grow in my imagination as an eternity seems to go by.