Sarah's Story Chapter 044 - Dungeon Traps

They descended the stairs. First Gregory, then Arthur, Delphi, Sarah, Clara, and lastly Lawrence.

At the bottom they stopped and let Delphi and Sarah move to the front. Sarah was excited. Time for traps! Delphi was excited, too. Let’s see how Sarah handled real Scout work, instead of sparring! Before them was a wide open cavern, with a few tunnels along the walls, relatively well-lit by glow crystals.

“Oh! Is that a trap?” Sarah said, immediately pointing to the floor ahead and to the right. It was a small pit trap with spikes at the bottom, just big enough for someone to step in, and a foot deep, of which more than half was wicked sharp spikes.

Delphi was caught off-guard. “Uh, yes, a pit trap.”

Sarah pointed in another direction. “And that’s a trap, right?”

A javelin trap, this time. Stepping in front of it would cause the javelin to shoot out at high speed. These were tricky because the Dungeon itself triggered that kind of trap, rather than using a pressure plate or other kind of trigger. The hole was at chest height, so the standard practice was to duck underneath where the javelin would fly.

Delphi frowned. “Yes… Sarah, I thought you couldn’t detect traps?”

“Well, I kept failing the exam. The test traps they used out there couldn’t hurt a fly, so they were impossible to spot. Also, I think the instructor didn’t like me much.”

To Delphi, the traps stood out in high relief against the sight before her, and were further highlighted by her [Trap Detection] Skill. She could just see them. Apparently Sarah was different.

“My [Threat Awareness] skill is warning me against those areas, like, don’t step there, don’t go there, like that. Oh, is that a magic trap?”

“Oh, yes, don’t move Sarah, that’s a nasty one. It’ll explode if you get too close.” Delphi bent down and picked up a stone, and tossed it twenty yards ahead into the center of the cavern.

BOOM

The cavern rumbled and echoed for a minute before calming down.

Sarah whistled. “Wow, Dungeons sure are dangerous.”

“Hey!” Gregory put a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t whistle! And keep your voice down. You could attract monsters before we finish clearing the traps,” he scolded Sarah.

“Ah, sorry,” she whispered.

Delphi sniffed, feeling her eyes water. Clara walked up next to her and put a hand on her shoulder. “It’s okay, Delphi. She’s just a prodigy. Hey, at least the training is over, right?”

Arthur walked up behind them. “We still need to see how she handles herself in a real fight.” He turned to Sarah. “Once the traps are cleared, observe Delphi and be prepared to give feedback once she gives the all clear.”

Sarah nodded, lips clamped shut in an overreaction to the scolding.

They spent the next fifteen minutes clearing out the traps in the cavern. Delphi took the time to show Sarah how to disable them the Scout way, and then Clara showed how Earth Magic could be used to also disable many of the traps quickly. Sarah’s method of blowing out the magic circuits in the traps was quickly discarded, given how dangerous actual Dungeon traps were. Clara could do it from a distance, but getting close to traps like that was too dangerous. It was better to just trigger them or avoid the area if that wasn’t possible.

The last trap in the cavern was in front of the passage opposite the exit stairs. It was a magic trap set in the floor that would sound an alarm calling monsters. It was also the only trap Sarah hadn’t been able to detect with [Threat Awareness].

Brawler Class Skill [Threat Awareness] has reached level 14.

Gregory held up a hand when he heard it was a monster-calling trap. “Let’s take a short break, then we’ll activate the trap rather than disabling it. The monsters should be E Rank at most, and we can see how Delphi handles it when things aren’t too dangerous.” He turned to Sarah. “You’ve seen most of our formations during training, so try to keep out of our way during the fight. Don’t engage unless necessary; I don’t want you getting caught up in one of our attacks. Just keep an eye on Delphi and let us know how she does.” “Okay,” Sarah stage-whispered and nodded.

A grim look settled on Delphi’s face.

Ten minutes later, they activated the trap. A high pitched sound, just on the edge of hearing, rang out, and wolf-like monsters howled and streamed into the cavern from the side tunnels.

“Lupi!” Gregory shouted, and their formation tightened. He gave a mighty shout and over half of the wolves turned and targeted him, lunging. But he caught them on his shield and smacked several at a time back with his spear.

Arthur stepped in serenely and casually sliced through the wolves one at a time, as if he was in no rush.

Clara stayed alert, watching the situation, but holding back her magic, waiting for Gregory to call for an attack.

Lawrence was handling most of the stray lupi that came towards the women, but he let a few through that were farthest away from Clara and Sarah. “Delphi!” he shouted as the lupi darted around him.

Delphi was a twitchy mess, eyes darting around at all the lupi barking and growling and howling and lunging around. Sarah was nervous, but then Delphi turned towards the approaching lupi, daggers drawn. With two broad slashes, she cut the lupi’s throats and sidestepped their lunges, letting them crash to the ground behind her to bleed out.

She had nearly taken their heads clean off.

Scout Class Skill [Danger Sense] has reached level 11.

Scout Class Skill [Threat Awareness] has reached level 5.

Scout Class Skill [Threat Awareness] has reached level 6.

After her first two kills, Delphi calmed down and seemed to find it easier to focus on which lupi were a threat to her, and which ones were targeting other members of the party. At one point Lawrence called out, “Don’t worry about anyone else, Delphi, just protect yourself. That’s plenty!”

“Wow…” Clara muttered.

Sarah’s heart pounded, this being her first time seeing monsters in her life, but with an A Rank party protecting her, there was simply nothing to do.

Lawrence let a monster by him to rush at Delphi every minute or so, but she never lost focus. When she wasn’t being actively attacked, she kept as many lupi in sight as possible, and she also reacted to the lupi behind her, clearly paying attention to the sounds of battle.

Sarah smiled. Good!

“Save one for Sarah!” Clara called out. Arthur clicked his tongue, and Gregory called back, “Alright, just the one!”

Lawrence swiftly slayed all the rest of the lupi around him, using a giant glaive with two hands. “All clear!”

Clara as well, “All clear!”

Delphi remained silent and alert, but there were only the lupi ahead of them now.

Arthur blurred for a moment, his sword dancing faster than the eye could see, using techniques Sarah had never seen before.

One lupus remained.

“Sarah, it’s all yours! Hit it in the head to stun it, and snap its neck!” Gregory shouted. Sarah dashed forward, going wide around his shield side, away from his spear and Arthur to stay out of their way. The lupus didn’t even get a chance to notice her before she slammed her fist into its head, causing it to yip in pain. She grappled it, wrapping her legs around its neck while straddling its back, wrapped her arms around its head, and yanked.

Crack!

The monster fell limp beneath her.