Harem Reborn c1-297

by Author：Magic_

  The two of us headed forward and I took out the FN FAL just to have some range, the guns were pretty good at tearing through these things, but then changed to the Sand Sword and Wind Spear. Latisha was using melee and I didn't know if she could get hurt by friendly fire, so it was better to be safe than sorry. Both these weapons could be thrown and resummoned according to the item info, so I could use some ranged attacks when she wasn't close.

  The next room had eight big Fishmen with armor, and I was glad I switched, it was like the game had seen me coming. It didn't matter, I dashed forward and Latisha ran around the side of the cave. I reached the first with my gate still open, jumped, and turned, spinning in the air.

  I stabbed the spear into the head of the first monster, as I barrel-rolled over his shoulder, letting the spear go as I did, and then slashing into the next monster's shoulder. The blade only sank so far, then I let it go, landing, rolling, and then resummoning the spear to stab up between the next Fishman's legs. As I released the spear again, I let myself roll more to get out of the way for Latisha.

  I had noticed the light from the side when I landed, rolling to get out of the way. She crashed into the remaining six like a runaway train, catching them all and blasting them in all directions like bowling pins. I was already on my feet and I switched the sword for the gauntlet and started to rip the monster at me and impaling them on the spear in shattering sprays of particles.

  Latisha finished the last three, and the hammer started to change, but this time it only got smaller. Instead of it being taller than me it was more the size of a wood chopping ax, but it still had the massive head with the small glowing stones around it. Looking at them, they were really glowing, but more like they were shining light at the hammer.

  "Can I see that for a minute?"

  "Sure, it almost weighs nothing now," Latisha said as she passed me the jet-ax hammer.

  I took it from her, and I was surprised just how light it actually was, the thing had no weight, but when I slammed it into the ground the effect was more intense than before, tearing a massive chunk of rock up and into the far wall with a loud crash. This thing was wild, but I noticed there was something like a trigger on the handle.

  I squeezed the handle, and then the next thing I knew, I was a pile of gelatin slapping into the rock wall. After I flipped off the wall and slapped onto the ground I changed back. Holy shit, what the hell was that?

  "Ya, don't press buttons if you don't know what they are for you dough head!"

  Even though Bhan's magic had stopped me from getting hurt, my brain still felt like it had been turned to jelly. I gave my head a shake, yeah, that was clearly a bad idea, but I was right full of bad ideas just waiting to happen!

  Maybe this was the reason why Bhan had this power? Maybe he was a walking disaster just waiting to go off. This power was probably to help clean up his messes or when he accidentally walked out into traffic. Whatever it was, I kind of wanted to meet him to swap stories, hehe.

  "Lesson learned. I will stop touching things I don't understand!"

  "Oh yeah, you just say it and it will happen! I'll believe it when I see you actually learn a lesson, hehe!"

  I glared at her, but I just got an eye pulled down with her tongue stuck out at me. I rolled my eyes and we both started to walk to the next room. I wasn't sure what to use, but if this was in line with most dungeons this should be the boss room, so it might be better just to wait to see what showed up.

  The next room that we entered was all rock and there was a big pile of rocks in the center of the room. After we both got all the way in, the cave seal and the pile of rocks started to move, slowly rolling around and connecting in some unseen way. We both watched as a massive rock elemental pulled itself together, stone by stone.

  "That's a big monster! Are we going to be able to defeat something like that?"

  "I don't think it will be as hard as you think, just don't come near me, and smash the rocks, okay?"

  "Smash the rocks? What are you talking about?"

  I reached into the armory and slipped on the Gauntlet of Heart, thinking about the stones I had thrown in my first fight with Professor MTK. The rock monster was fully formed now, and it let out a stone-grinding roar. Latisha moved away from me, and I raised my hand, aiming at the monster.

  "Pull!"

  Chapter 214: Too Easy

  The giant arm rock flew past me and into the wall between me and Latisha. I didn't wait, I just kept pulling stones, but soon the gauntlet stopped working, and then disappeared from my hand.

  'Don't over-use an item, you only get so many uses during dungeons. The guns you have will only have a single clip and weapons other than R-type will disappear after many uses, but you will get them back outside of the dungeons.' -Dansei.

  'Why are R-type always usable?'

  'Reaction-type weapons are special and bend the rules because of the way they constantly change. Every monster you kill with it causes it to change a little bit, sometimes even more, so the game thinks it's a new weapon each time. You have another R-type weapon you should be using.' -Dansei.

  I reached in and grabbed the Living thread Shield. I hadn't used it since the fight with Grismald, and when I took it out the color hand changed from silver to Hyper purple. The threads almost looked like mini chains now, so I pulled it on over and past Hyde's bracelet. I could feel the little chains moving as I did, but the material still felt like stretchy cloth.

  The monster wasn't as big, and Latisha was smashing the last of its stone so I decided to try this out. I dash forward to the now charging rock half-giant, and I swung at me so I blocked, wondering what would happen first Bhan's magic, or the Threads. Black and purple chains burst forth before the creature even got close to hitting me, and the chains shot around the arm. Then, more chains burst from my arms, covering the body of the rock elemental.

  Then, something inside of me told me to squeeze, so I clenched my fist. The chains instantly tightened as I squeezed my fist, and then the monster exploded in black particles. The chains retracted, but they also drank in the black dots as they did.

  Latisha walked up to me and gave me a kiss, as the chains finally fully retracted. They were now more brown than purple, the chains looked rougher, but now what? I looked around, and sure enough, a blue circle was appearing on the ground.

  "Well, that was easy enough."

  "Yeah, almost too easy, don't you think?" Latisha said stepping back and looking around.

  "You think there might be more that we are missing?"

  "You're pretty far into the game aren't you? Dungeons at this level are never this easy."

  She had a point, so I started to help her look around. The cave was huge, but there wasn't that much special about it. There were a couple of outcropping rocks near the walls, but there were no ponds or anything that looked out of place at first glance. Then I started to examine the rock groups sticking out of the walls.

  There were four of them, but after looking at their shapes, I noticed that three of them looked almost exactly the same. I walked over to the fourth one, and Latisha, noticing me, followed me over. I explained my theory, and she started to help me look at the rock grouping over.

  There were four rocks, one big one was about two meters tall, but the other three were only half the size. The big rock was half in the wall and the other three surrounded it, and after looking and touching the stones, Latisha finger it out. The center stone only had to be pushed in to get it to roll back to reveal a ladder going into the ground.

  "What do you think will be down here?" Latisha asked as we crawled down the impossibly long ladder.

  "I hope at the bottom, we have been climbing down for ten minutes already. We will have to climb back up after!"

  "Why don't you just fall and tell me how far it is?"

  "That isn't a bad idea, but what if there is no bottom?"

  "You will think of something," Latisha told me from about.

  I was sorely tempted to reac
h up and pinch her ass cheek, but she was right. The place was pitch black, so I couldn't even enjoy the view above me. Well, might as well get this over with.

  "Okay, wish me luck!"

  I tipped backward ready for the gut-lifting feeling of fall, but it was like falling over backward from standing up. I had the wind knocked out of me, but nothing was hurt, so I guess, Bhan's magic couldn't save me from everything.

  "Are you okay?"

  "*Cough* Yup, I am alright."

  "Wow, you're so close! How far did you fall?"

  "Half a step I think, I just needed to take one more step, and I would have been on the ground."

  I thought, but maybe it was the game's idea of a bad joke. Who knew, but at least MainFrame wasn't breathing down my neck. I picked myself up and then torches lit all down a hallway in front of me.

  "Now can we guess what's down there?"

  "What do you think it is?" I asked.

  "A big monster."

  "Wow, aren't they at the end of almost every dungeon?"

  "Well then, what do you think will be in there?"

  "No clue, but I hope it's your big monster."

  "Why," Latisha asked with a puzzled look on her face.

  "Exactly, Neither one of us are that bright, so if it's a thinking game, we might be hooped!"

  "Hey, don't lump you in with me! Plus, you figured out the door, so you're not completely useless."

  "Oh, I do love my backhanded comments, but enough fun, let's go see if you're right."

  The two of us walked to the big door at the end of the lit hall. They were a lot bigger when we got closer, and they really had the feel of a big boss room. The two of us started to push the doors open, but we were both surprised to find the room completely empty, except for the sphere in the center.

  Both of us walked in and the doors closed and then disappeared without a trace, just leaving smooth walls like the rest of the room. I looked at Latisha, but she just shrugged and started to walk to the object in the center of the room. I turned and followed her to get a better look at the globe.

  The thing was covered in four metal bands covered in strange markings cut clear through the bands. There was another ring made of glass that encircled it, but it ran vertical and over top of the other bands of metal. The globe in the middle looks to be made from smooth stone.

  "What do you think this is?" Latisha asked.

  "A headache," I said while walking up to it.

  I touched the first band and it moved from side to side very easily. I tried each of the other four bands and they were all the same, so I tried moving one all the way around, but before I got to move it all the way, something happened. One of the symbols made the section light upon the glass that ran vertical, and the globe started to move slowly.

  With Latisha's help, I got all the rings into place, each one making the globe spin faster. Finally at last on the globe started to glow, and a hole in the wall opposite to where we had entered opened up. On the other side of the hole was another room with three globes this time.

  So, we just have to keep lining up the bands? It doesn't seem like it's going to be that much trouble," Latisha remarked as we walked into the next room.

  The globes were identical, so we split up and both completed in short order and then completed the one in the center together. Once all three globes were spinning, the next hole opened, but there were six on the other side, and when we got through, we could tell that these ones were a bit different. The first two had six rings and each set had one more ring, except the last ones had two glass rings.

  "Well, at least it's getting harder, I thought this was going to be a cakewalk," Latisha remarked as she moved over to her globe.

  "I still think there is something more to this, even if it gets a bit harder, it's still pretty easy."

  "No point in complaining...where did that...what the hell?!"

  What the hell was right, we were back in the first room. What just happened?

  'The room seems to be on some kind of timer. You will have to speed up and to lounge around if you want to get out of this place!' -Dansei.

  'How many rooms are there, and how long do we have to finish?'

  'Five rooms and ten minutes to finish. Sounds easy, but I don't think you will get this one on your ten tries, but good luck!' -Dansei.

  Both Latisha and I let out sighs of defeat, the two of us were more of the smash smash types and now we were about to be put through the wringer. I turned and looked forlornly at Latisha, this was going to be the shits. We had both known that it was too easy!

  'How many chances do we get?'

  'Oh, don't worry, this will be fine! You can try as many times as you want! Well, want is the wrong word, need is better, since you need to solve this to get out of the dungeon!' -Dansei.

  Chapter 215: Towers

  This was our third time getting sent back, no matter how fast we were. The last room had six globes with twenty bands on each. Neither of us could even get close to finishing the second one, and now we were both sitting against the far wall where we had entered. This was the worst kind of test, no matter how many times we fail, we have to keep trying, or be stuck here forever.

  I had even tried smashing the wall, but our weapons didn't even reach the wall, the weapons would float a hand width away. I tried to spin all the rings and stop each one as they lit up, but the last two rooms' globes had two glass rings. They made it much harder to track and in the end spinning them two or three at a time was faster, but not fast enough.

  "What are we going to do?" Latisha asked from my shoulder where her head was resting.

  "I'm not really sure yet. No matter how fast we go, we are still short, by a long shot, but if we had one more person, then I think we would be fine."

  "But, there are only the two of us that are here, so that doesn't really help us."

  "There are a couple things I haven't tried yet, not all is lost. Though they might not be reliable options, we can try getting ahold of Ivan."

  I had noticed that there was a radio in the armor, so I reached in and grabbed it. I turned it on and pressed the button to talk.

  "Ivan?"

  "Mary, is that you calling me from the grave? Shit stain! It's been a while, what can this drunken cosmonaut do for you?"

  "Who is Mary?" Latisha asked.

  "That doesn't matter! Ivan, we are stuck in a room with a time trial thing, we need another person or extra arms to be able to complete this!"

  "She was my first wife, but I am not some mail order bride service!" Ivan complained.

  "You brought me, Diamond, last time, can't you do it again?"

  "What? Do you think I just go around dropping goodies off for free? How would I ever stay drunk?"

  "I freed you from the game, and if we get stuck in here, so do you. Put it on a tab!"

  "Fine! But you better watch out, I will have to beam him in."

  "Wait, send me Plague Strider instead."

  "Whatever you want, but you will owe me, and the drunk Russian always collects his debts!" Shouted Ivan into the speaker.

  Both of us moved back and a red crosshair started to weave back and forth, but then headed for me. I started to back up but forgot how close to the wall I was and backed right into it. Instantly a suit of grey plates with blue and bright pink lines appeared in front of me.

  'General Valthan Star Strider? Is that you? You feel like him, but you look different; why am I here?' -Plague Strider.

  'I am the same, but we need your help.'

  I then explained what we needed to do, and after hearing, Plague Strider agreed to help. If MainFrame could see this he would be having a kitten. Twelve copies of the MAS unit helped us complete the puzzle within a matter of moments, and we all ran through the last door. It led into a large open tropical island, and we all ran out into the sand as the trial closed.

  "This is a lot better but, this still isn't the city we were in…" But Latisha's voice cut off at the sound of my name.
>
  "Dave?!" A familiar voice called from behind.

  I turned around just in time to catch Sandra, as she jumped into my arms. I hugged her tight, she was wearing torn clothes and she was more tanned than when I had found her in the desert. Just how long had she been here?

  "Where is Aquina?" Sandra asked after finally pulling away from me.

  "Wait for us, this is Latisha, and this is…"

  I looked around, but Plague Strider Had helped out a lot; I just wish I could have thanked it. I turned back to the girls who were already talking, and I started to get a sinking feeling in my stomach. Then I noticed the blue circle that was starting to appear in the sand, finally, I was legit tired.