Chapter 1500 1500: Hopes and Dreams

Their progress came to a crawl after the lizard men began their relentless attacks. The party couldn't find time to rest as the lizard men poured out from the woods the moment they let their guard down.

The twelve began rotating in shifts to allow themselves some rest. Arthur was placed as lookout several times, but since he couldn't fight them head-on, he worked to intimidate them using spiritual energy.

Once Arthur stood guard, the attacks stopped and the party could rest. They were quickly being exhausted by the relentless attacks and realized that their attacks were unfit for battles of attrition.

The party had to rethink their fighting strategies since the lizard men were experts in formations and maneuvering the woods. Instead of head-on attacks, they focused on advancing toward the mountains with minimal injuries.

After their tenth battle, the party lost its joyful attitude as they realized that they had barely killed ten lizard men so far. If their calculations were correct and there were over a hundred and fifty left, their odds of survival began looking slim.

A quick meeting between the members focused on understanding each other's abilities and how to utilize them better in battle. The group began creating several formations for the first time, each designed for different purposes or terrains.

Their eleventh battle was the best they had thanks to their plan. They managed to defeat the lizard men this time and killed eight out of ten from the group. The two scouts managed to slip into the darkness and disappear without a trace.

An unexpected victory was all the group needed to push harder. Arthur also began helping them by using his spiritual energy to disrupt the lizard men's formation. After another three defeats, they faced another setback.

Arthur was the one to warn them about a strange lizard that looked like a mage. His timely warning allowed the group to jump to the nearest trees when the ground turned to quicksand, swallowing everything. The lizard men began attacking again while knowing where to step, giving them a newfound edge over the battle.

Despite the sudden change, the battle ended quickly when Yuran managed to kill the mage from a distance. Once the quicksand disappeared, the group made short work of their enemies.

Arthur began realizing that their journey was going to take days instead of hours. Luckily, they had enough food to last them weeks inside the dungeon, an unexpected preparedness of the White Fangs.

The members began growing closer as the life-and-death battles forged their characters anew. Juan was no longer the haughty and arrogant man after almost dying at the hands of a mimic, and instead focused on becoming an actual part of the team. Beatrice struck a friendship with Rolling Flame after the two fought back to back against the lizard men. Yuran earned the respect of the others after he saved them from the lizard mage. But for Arthur, he was still the outsider to them, except Rosie, who was growing more interested in him as they talked.

"Yuran said you think you're from the future," she said as the two were standing guard while the others rested. "Do you believe that?"

"That makes me sound like a madman," Arthur said without answering her question. "What do you think?"

"I think you're strange," she said with a frown. "But not enough to make me believe you're a time-traveler."

"I don't think I'm a time-traveler," Arthur said while raising a hand, letting the darkness of the forest seep through his fingers. "I haven't lived this before."

"That's a relief," she said with a sigh. "I would hate to trust my life to the wrong hands."

"But I do think this is some elaborate dream from my past," Arthur said. He watched the relief on the mage's face turn to a grimace.

"Are you… a little crazy?" she asked with such an earnest voice that Arthur couldn't help but laugh.

"It doesn't matter," Arthur said. "For you, that changed nothing. I will keep protecting you as long as it's within my power."

"What happens to me, in your dream?" Rosie asked after a short pause. "Am I destined for greatness?"

Arthur was silent and unsure of what to tell her. After they were attacked by the serpent on the mountain in the distance, they fell outside the dungeon and into the mountain range Rovero.

"I don't know. The last that I remember is that the serpent attacked, and we all fell to darkness," Arthur said with a shake of his head. "I hope it's different this time."

Rosie only smiled at him, as if intrigued but not taking him seriously. She turned back toward the camp.

"This was supposed to be my last dungeon dive before retiring," she said. "I wanted to open a library next to home. My father has fallen ill and needs someone to take care of him. It's strange," she said with a laugh, "that I might die after I decided to leave this world."

Arthur was silent, staring at the mage with unknown emotions. It might be pity, but something else was there. He looked at her with… envy. She knew what she wanted, while he did not.

"Most consider it a bad omen to talk about our future plans right before a big battle," Arthur said with a smile. "But I think that if we don't clutch to hopes and dreams in the darkest times, then when would we?"

"I like that," she said. "I love to hope. It makes me feel like anything is possible."

Arthur nodded in silence as they remained seated on the edge of the camp. The two weren't worried about being ambushed since Arthur was using his spiritual energy to keep the lizard men at bay.

Two days passed inside the forest. Arthur was surprised to see the final phase of their plan come to fruition. As the giant lizard men, called Lizard Titans, collapsed one after the other, the party members moved in unison like a gale of wind, taking down the last of the titans protecting the mountain gate.

Once the last titan fell, the gate burst open to reveal the mountain path. Everyone stopped dead in their tracks as they breathed in the victory and bore witness to the countless skills emerging from the titans.

After days together, they had overcome their greed and worked together to survive this floor. It took longer than expected, but the Lizard Titans were no more.

As soon as the fight ended, the mage-ranger collapsed to the ground and burst out sobbing. The other fangs, now only four other than the mage, rushed to console her and heal together.

Rolling Flame had perished a few hours ago, sacrificing himself to save his party members. The others couldn't stop to mourn him as the titans allowed them no rest before attacking again.

Arthur looked at the five members, wondering how this could be a dream when his heart ached like theirs. Rolling Flame had saved him as well when the titan released a putrefying attack before its death.

Instead of rushing up the mountain for the final battle, the group backtracked until they found the warrior and gave him a proper burial. The funeral was spent in somber silence before they left one by one. Beatrice was the most affected from Arthur's party as she seemed to have grown very close to the warrior.

The mountain gate led them upward through a winding path toward the top, where the final battle would take place. Arthur helped the group find the real serpent, and it was for that reason that they were ambushed by the titan that killed Rolling Flame.

No one said a thing as they stared at the gate. Fay looked at the others, nodded, and then walked through the gate. One by one, they walked forward.

Arthur stood silent as he stared at the gate. For others, it seemed like a stone frame that barely served as an entrance to the protected mountain. But Arthur knew that there was some sort of teleportation array that targeted him.

Rosie turned to look at him in confusion. Yuran stopped as well, sensing his hesitation. As the two had grown close to him, they noticed his hesitation.

"It seems this is the end of my dream," Arthur said with a smile. "I don't understand what this was for, or if it meant anything other than a chance to learn new things, but I'm glad I came here."

"What are you talking about, Arthur?" Rosie asked.

"I have to stay behind," Arthur said. "My job here is done. You will survive the final battle, and this dream will end. Thank you, for reminding me of what I should fight for."

"What do you fight for?" Yuran asked.

"Hopes and dreams of everyone who wishes to live another day," Arthur said with a grin. "Goodbye."

Rosie and Yuran stared at him, then smiled and nodded. They walked through the gate, and Arthur followed after them. He felt the astral pull and found himself in his old home again, where he first reunited with his father and began to loathe him.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.