Chapter 19

The Golden Oak was gone.

‘It’s a good thing I took the last one. I just hope that’s not why the dungeon didn’t replace it. Now I just need to figure out how to ensure it survives.’

To start, I needed to do some more research. It was times like this that I really missed Lisa’s presence. My AI assistant was so helpful with things like this.

“Should we search the rest of the floor?” Cora asked.

“It’s up to the two of you,” I said with a disappointed sigh. “I doubt the dungeon would have moved it, but I guess it’s possible.”

Clearing the second floor was faster the second time. The longest part was showing Mike and Cora what was worth harvesting and how to do so correctly. Of course, that time was dramatically reduced when Mike decided to accept the offered Herbalism skill.

I was a bit surprised when he decided to slot the skill, but I understood when he explained that they didn’t want to be reliant on me for everything. If we were ever to delve separately, at least one of them needed the skill to know what was worth harvesting, especially if we were in an unfamiliar environment.

“That didn’t take as long as I expected,” Mike said once the floor boss fell and the portal appeared.

“That’s because Emie kept stunning everything with Lightning Bolts. It’s hardly a challenge when your opponents can’t fight back, you know.”

“Hey, I’m pretty sure you ended up getting more kills than I did,” I said, alluding to the fact that both she and Mike had gained another level while I hadn’t. “I can stop if you want.”

To be fair, it took a bit more essence for me to gain another level than it did for them since I was a few levels ahead, but I was trying to limit my contributions to just stunning creatures so my teammates could catch up a bit.

Of course, they knew exactly what I was doing.

“No, it’s fine,” Cora said, shaking her head. “We’ve already defeated these mobs before. They weren’t really much of a challenge to begin with.”

“Did you still want to manually harvest this thing?” Mike asked, motioning toward the dead hearth deer.

“No, it’s okay,” I said. “I could have used some of the parts, but we looted enough that I’ll have plenty to work with for a while.” I paused and then added, “That is, if you two don’t mind me keeping some of the materials to create enchantments with?”

“Not at all,” Mike said. “It’ll all even out over time.”

Cora looted the body. There was no skillbook this time. In fact, we hadn’t received a single skillbook for our entire second run.

“Huh. I would have thought at least the boss would have given us one,” Cora said. “We should have just let you process it.”

“Hindsight and all that,” I said dismissively.

“What does that mean?”

“It’s from a saying from my old homeworld. ‘Hindsight is 20/20.’ It means you can see things better after the fact.”

“Well, hopefully, the dungeon is more generous on the next floor.”

“Actually, I was thinking we should walk back to the safe zone instead of going to the next floor,” I said.

“Why is that?” Mike asked.

“Something I read in the forum keeps bothering me.”

“Oh, you mean the crazy claim of a new mob that only comes out under the night’s aurora?” Cora laughed.

“Exactly,” I said. “Everyone just chalked it up to the party being mistaken—”

“No. They weren’t mistaken,” Mike interjected. “Another party posted something about it as well. It seems they went in search of the mysterious mob and discovered that the room actually does spawn a special flying creature if you’re in the room as the light begins to fade. It’s something called a Twilight Owl.”

“Look at you, being all scholarly!” Cora cooed as she wrapped her arms around her husband. “It looks like Emie’s rubbing off on you.”

Mike rolled his eyes at his wife’s antics before saying, “I’m just pointing out that there is an extra mob and they weren’t wrong. If we want to fight it, we have to time things just right so we’re in the room right as the light starts fading.”

Since the mobs wouldn’t start respawning until the light had fully faded, it wouldn’t pose much of a risk as long as we were able to defeat the owl quickly. If the creature flew away and dragged things out, however… the respawn feature might pose a problem.

“Even if the mobs start spawning, it’s the first room of the floor. We can always retreat into the safe zone. They can’t follow us there,” Mike pointed out. “Honestly, I wouldn’t mind fighting the special mob. It’s something different, and I bet the loot would be worthwhile.”

“You make a very compelling argument,” Cora said.

Since it was my idea in the first place, I had no qualms about challenging the creature, and we slowly made our way back to the start of the floor.

“Did we miss it?” Cora asked when we stood in the dimming room, and nothing attacked.

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“I don’t know. We should have made it on time,” Mike answered.

“Unless it was all a hoax,” Cora countered with a frown.

We waited for a few moments longer before I shrugged.

“Well, we might as well head back to the safe zone.”

As soon as the words left my mouth, a shadow passed overhead. Without thinking, I teleported several feet away before searching the sky.

I probably wouldn’t have been in any real danger from a lower-level mob, but I wasn’t willing to take that chance when avoiding damage was an option.

“Looks like they weren’t wrong,” Mike said with an excited grin. “Don’t hit it with your lightning, Emie. That would ruin the fight.”

“Want me to use the bow instead?”

“No! Let me hit it with a Space Bolt,” Cora exclaimed.

“That’ll probably destroy it.”

“Does it matter? The dungeon will still give us the loot, no matter what kind of condition the body is in.”

She made a good point, so I waved her on.

“You missed!” Mike joked when the owl dodged the projectile.