Felix sighed and fell back on his bed in exhaustion. He was just about to shut his eyes for a quick nap as it was already pretty late into the night, when a sharp rhythmic knock came on the door.
Not the door leading to the hallways and out of the room, but the one leading to the balcony 10 floors up in the castle. And Felix could clearly see Kelly fast asleep in her bed.
He sat up in alarm and glanced at the balcony doors, mostly made of see-through glass, except it was currently covered by a curtain.
He sat still with his eyes fixed on the door, waiting to know if it’d come again or if it was just the night wind and he’d been imagining it.
It came again. Three sharp knocks.
He wasn’t imagining it.
Felix carefully bent to pick up one pair of his fluffy slippers, then slowly rose and tiptoed to the door. Softly twisting the doorknob so as not to alert the intruder, he suddenly pushed the door open, raising his slippers in defiance.
He had discovered not too long ago that the [Weapon Proficiency] skill recognized certain types of slippers, mostly the flappers, as a weapon. Crazy.
And Felix was confident he could take on the pro burglar who was knocking to be sure everyone was asleep in the room before they picked the lock.
The door slammed into a dark shadow who yelped as they fell back on their butt. Felix was just about to assault them with a flurry from his flappers, when he involuntarily paused on seeing not just one, but multiple figures on the balcony all in dark colored outfits to blend in with the night.
But their faces were exposed and he could recognize most of them to be his fellow Sage candidates. Not just a random bunch of them, but the S-Ranks and SS-Ranks in house. Led by the other SS Ranker, aside from the female brute on bob-cut—who was also present.
[OVERDEATH skill has been activated]
[All your attributes have been increased by 100%!]
"Woah—woah—woah! Relax!" The boy on black, messy hair with silver streaks, quickly raised his hands in surrender, cussing under his breath as he got on his feet.
Not only had they felt the sudden change in temperature that told them Felix had just activated a very unfriendly skill, they could see his eyes turn from its cold gray to something darker than the night.
"What do you want?" Felix asked, his voice devoid of emotions. This content belongs to N0velFire.ɴet
The five S-Ranks slowly took steps back, but the female brute on bob-cut remained motionless with her arms crossed like Felix’s hostility was being directed at her.
"Ok. I’ll get straight to the point..." The boy paused, looking Felix straight in the eyes with a smile creeping on his face.
"I discovered a dungeon!" The boy declared with a wide grin.
"... I said I discovered a dungeon—"
"Yeah, I heard you the first time. So, what exactly does that have to do with me?" Felix inquired. "And how the fk did you all get up here?"
"Are you trying to tell me you can’t make it up here yourself?"
"Heck no!" Felix found it absurd that they could all leap and fly up 10 floors, while he couldn’t.
"Uh, that was a joke—ahem."
"Listen here, Princess," the female brute cut him off, "The boy found an unexplored dungeon and the fact that we came for you shows we’re trying to play it safe. So this should be simple, are you coming with us? Loots would be shared accordingly. If you won’t, then we expect you to keep your mouth shut about whatever transpired here tonight."
"So what’s it gonna be?"
"First off, I’ll kill you the next time you call me princess. Secondly, is it gonna be tonight?" Felix was low-key excited about the dungeon, but he couldn’t let it show. And was he scared of venturing into the unknown with these strangers? No. Seven kills at most and Felix should be leveling up. If they tried pulling any tricks? Nothing [Overdeath] couldn’t handle when he tasted level 2 with his new sets of skills.
"Sadly, we have a Sage who meditates nearby every night. And no, we won’t be jumping him, Felix." The boy said.
"What the hell?" Felix’s lips twitched.
"We’ll have to sneak in tomorrow at daylight. That’s the only window of chance we’ll have. And as we don’t know how much time we’ll be spending there, but I hope we should be back by nightfall." The boy carefully explained.
"How long have you known of the dungeon?" Felix asked, noting his mention of the Sage who meditates nearby every night. That meant he must have been watching and plotting before finally decided to get a team together. That was intelligence far beyond what he was showing.
"Mhmm... a while." He replied with a shrug.
Felix nodded subtly. "Color of the day?"
"Don’t worry, I’ve prepared everything already. I just need you—and everyone else to be submerged at the right time."
"Wait, submerged? We’re diving?" The female brute asked with a frown.
"Please, tell me you can swim, baldie. Of course, we’ll be diving." The boy said, ignoring the death glare of the female brute.
"I won’t be saying much now, but tomorrow you’ll all be receiving a note with timeless instructions you should follow to avoid being fished out by the instructors. Are we all clear?" He asked, and when the majority of the team nodded in understanding, he clapped his hands in conclusion.
"My name’s Aaron, by the way. And that’s it for tonight then, see you all at the gates tomorrow." Then he climbed over the balcony, and began carefully scaling down slowly by placing his hands and feet on wedges, with the others following suit one after the other.
Felix couldn’t help but feel his brain go numb as he watched them—the future S-Ranks of Vastoria, so dumb that they’d rather climb up and down 10 floors up the walls of the castle than simply use the fking stairs, just so they could avoid detection.
It was obvious whose idea it was.
Felix looked to the side at the female brute, half expecting her to follow suit, as well. But she simply scoffed at Felix’s condescending look. She grabbed the ledge of the balcony, and casually leapt off.