Chapter 37: 037. Sub-Heroines Are Still Heroines [I]

"Hah!"

A black-haired woman with orange eyes held onto a sword as she defended against a massive strike from a Hobgoblin with her teeth gritted so hard her jaw ached.

’I need to get stronger...’

CLANG!

The deafening sound of her chipped steel meeting the rusted, blood-stained iron of the monster’s club echoed through the damp cavern.

The crushing impact sent a vicious shockwave traveling down her forearms, threatening to dislocate her shoulders as her boots slid backward across the slick, foul-smelling mud, carving two deep trenches into the earth making her struggle to maintain her footing.

"GRAAARGH!" the Hobgoblin roared, spit and putrid saliva flying from its maw as it pressed its immense weight down upon her guard.

Floor 2 was entirely different from the rocky expanses of the floor below.

It was a massive, dimly lit subterranean cavern dominated by a sprawling, treacherous swamp that smelled completely terrible.

The air was suffocatingly humid, thick with the gag-inducing stench of rotting vegetation, stagnant black water and bubbling pockets of toxic gas.

Luminescent green moss hung like ragged curtains from the twisted roots of colossal underground trees, casting long eerie pale shadows across the murky bogs.

Lyra’s orange eyes burned with desperate focus. She couldn’t match the D-Rank beast in a contest of raw strength so she angled her blade just a fraction of an inch to the right.

SWISH!

The rusted iron club slid off her steel, smashing violently into the mud beside her boot and sending a spray of toxic black sludge into the air.

Lyra spun on her heel, using the opening to retaliate.

SLASH!

Her blade bit deeply into the Hobgoblin’s exposed thigh, tearing through the thick leathery green skin and severing a major artery. Dark blood immediately sprayed across the roots of the nearby tree.

"GURGH!" the beast bellowed in pain, stumbling backward.

Lyra prepared to lunge forward to finish the job, her muscles coiled tight. However, she had been entirely too focused on the towering threat directly in front of her.

From the murky, bubbling water to her blind left side, a smaller, standard goblin burst forth, perfectly camouflaged beneath a thick layer of foul-smelling swamp sludge.

"Kikikiki!" it shrieked, clutching a jagged dagger fashioned from a shattered femur. Before Lyra could even pivot her hips to raise her guard, the goblin lunged with ferocity.

SHLUCK!

The jagged bone dagger drove straight through her left calf. It pierced the reinforced leather of her boot, tore through her muscle fibers, and scraped viciously against her bone.

A sharp blinding spike of pure agony shot up Lyra’s leg.

"Agh!" she gasped as her balance failing instantly. Her good leg buckled under her, and she collapsed hard onto one knee in the toxic mud.

The Hobgoblin, recovering from its slashed thigh, looked down at her vulnerable form. Its bulbous yellow eyes gleamed with sadistic joy.

It raised its massive iron club high above its head, gripping the handle with both hands, fully intending to cave her skull in.

’No...’ Lyra thought, her vision blurring at the edges as she stared up at the descending shadow of death. ’Not here. I can’t die here! Kala needs me—’

As she was about to die, a sudden rapid blur tore through the damp humid air.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t the terrifying Snakekin Vanguard that had been massacring monsters on the first floor. It was a young man wearing a dirt-stained butler’s uniform beneath a set of practical leather armor.

Mandy crashed feet-first into the goblin clinging to the woman’s bleeding leg.

CRACK!

His reinforced boot slammed directly into the creature’s face with enough force to shatter its jaw completely.

The goblin flew backward off Lyra’s leg, splashing violently into the dark swamp water.

Without missing a single beat, Mandy reversed his grip on his steel sword and stabbed viciously downward.

SQUELCH!

The blade pierced the submerged goblin’s throat, pinning it to the muddy bottom of the bog and killing it instantly.

"I really, really don’t want to be here..." Mandy grumbled under his breath, yanking his sword free as dark blood clouded the murky water.

"ROAAAR!" The Hobgoblin, furious at the sudden interruption and the loss of its easy prey, immediately shifted its aggression.

It brought the iron club crashing down in a diagonal sweep aimed directly at Mandy’s ribs but Mandy didn’t freeze.

The relentless life-or-death training his Master had physically beaten into him over the past twenty-four hours overrode his natural cowardice.

He stepped forward, entering the highly dangerous inner guard of the towering monster and then raised his blade at a precise, upward angle, catching the club right at the base of the handle where the leverage was weakest.

CLANG! 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

Sparks showered over the mud. Mandy parried the strike, allowing the monster’s own downward momentum to carry the massive weapon harmlessly past his shoulder.

With the Hobgoblin’s chest thrown completely wide open and its balance ruined, Mandy twisted his wrists and thrust forward.

SHNK!

The steel sword drove cleanly through the side of the Hobgoblin’s thick neck, severing the windpipe and the spinal cord in a single devastating motion.

The towering beast dropped its club, gargling on its own blood, before collapsing face-first into the muck with a resounding splash.

Mandy let out a massive, shuddering breath with his hands shaking slightly as he lowered his blood-stained blade.

Almost immediately, the sound of leisurely footsteps sloshing through the shallow mud announced the arrival of the other two.

Ren walked forward, his hands resting casually in his pockets, completely unbothered by the putrid stench of the floor and right beside him was Eternia, her twin curved blades already drawn with her golden eyes scanning the dark treeline for any remaining threats.

"Some good sword work there, Mandy! That was cool!" Eternia commented with a smile on her face.

Ren stopped a few paces away with a smile. "It was pretty good. Your footwork is finally getting sharper."

Mandy’s tense shoulders immediately dropped as he smiled with a wave of profound relief washing over him then he scratched the back of his head nervously.

"Th-Thank you, my Lord. I just... I just reacted."

Ren then looked over to the girl kneeling in the mud, who was currently clutching her bleeding leg and panting through the pain.

He looked at her black hair, her striking orange eyes, and the stubborn scowl plastered across her dirt-smudged face and he recognized her instantly.

She was Lyra.

She was actually another one of the plentiful Sub-Heroines from the original Protagonist’s POV.

The original author of the web novel possessed an incredibly annoying, repetitive obsession with the "Commoner to Greatness" plotline, and Lyra was the ultimate poster child for that specific trope... behind Lumi and Jace of course.

According to the lore burned into Ren’s memory, Lyra was an impoverished orphan who had somehow managed to claw her way into the prestigious Royal Magic Academy on a scholarship.

She spent her weekends doing grueling life-threatening Adventuring work not only to make enough money for her own basic survival, but to pay for the expensive alchemical treatments required by her bedridden little sister.

Later in the story, after Jace inevitably stumbled upon her, saved her life, and added her to his growing heroic harem which a massive plot twist would reveal that this ragged struggling commoner was actually the direct, secret descendant of the Head Mage of the Azure Magic Tower.

She was destined to inherit an absurd amount of magical power, political influence, and vast wealth.

Ren, looking down at her struggling, mud-covered form, found himself analyzing her utility.

He would have liked the original her pretty much, considering her massive future potential and her raw unrefined talent with a blade if she wasn’t so—

"I didn’t need your help," Lyra hissed, glaring up at Mandy through the dark strands of her wet hair. "I had it handled."

—infuriatingly stubborn.

Immediately, she made the rude remark about how she could handle it by herself, flatly refusing to accept the reality that she had been a fraction of a second away from getting her brains splattered across the roots.

All three of them looked down at the woman who had just gotten stabbed in the leg and was currently bleeding out into the toxic mud.

Eternia’s golden eyes narrowed into dangerous slits.

"You had it handled?" Eternia asked.

She stepped forward, her hand tightening around the leather-wrapped hilt of her curved sword. "You were lying in the dirt waiting to die, commoner. You should be groveling in this mud, thanking Mandy for sparing your life. Be grateful."

Lyra’s orange eyes flashed with defiant blinding anger.

She gripped the hilt of her own chipped sword tightly, using it as a makeshift crutch to force herself up onto her good leg and she swayed slightly with her face pale but she refused to look down.

"Fuck off." Lyra spat back, her voice laced with pure venom. "I didn’t ask for a rescue, and I don’t owe you anything."

She took another step forward with the muscles in her legs tensing, fully intending to separate the ungrateful girl’s head from her shoulders right then and there.

"Eternia. Stay," Ren commanded lazily, not even bothering to raise his voice.

Eternia froze instantly.

The terrifying killing intent vanished as quickly as it had appeared. She bowed her head, immediately stepping back behind Ren without a single word of protest, though she continued to glare daggers at the black-haired girl.

Lyra watched the terrifyingly obedient demi-human back down with a flicker of genuine apprehension finally crossing her features.

She looked at Ren and she gritted her teeth, reaching down to inspect her calf. The bone dagger had dug incredibly deep.

Dark, sluggish blood was flowing freely down her boot, mixing with the toxic swamp water.

Lyra desperately patted the small leather pouches attached to her belt, her face paling significantly when she realized the grim truth.

She had no healing potions left... She had burned through her very last vial on the first floor after a bad encounter with a goblin ambush...

If she tried to walk on this ruined leg, the scent of fresh blood would attract every predator lurking in the bog within minutes.

If the toxic swamp water seeped deeper into the open wound, the resulting infection would undoubtedly kill her before she ever reached the surface stairs.

She swallowed her immense pride, the bitter unavoidable taste of reality forcing her to negotiate.

"I... I need a healing potion," Lyra forced out. "I can pay you for it."

Eternia glared at her, letting out a dark scoff. "Let the mud claim you. We don’t share our resources with ungrateful strays."

Ren raised a hand silencing the woman once more.

He looked at the bleeding Sub-Heroine, his mind perfectly recalling her established character tropes.

Ren knew exactly how her mind worked. Characters of her specific, hyper-independent archetype absolutely despised charity... If he gave it to her for free, she would view it as pity, and her immense pride would force her to resent him for it but if he made it a transaction, she would accept it without hesitation.

"Give her a basic potion, Eternia." Ren ordered smoothly.

Eternia looked like she had just been asked to swallow a live toad, but she didn’t dare hesitate against a direct command.

She reached into her spatial ring, pulling out a small glass vial filled with glowing red liquid, and practically threw it at the girl’s chest.

Lyra caught it clumsily.

She immediately popped the cork with her thumb and poured half of the viscous liquid directly over the gaping wound on her calf, downing the rest in a single desperate gulp.

The magical liquid worked instantaneously, knitting the torn muscle fibers together and sealing the skin with a faint, stinging hiss.

She let out a long breath of profound relief, cautiously testing her weight on the freshly healed leg. It held perfectly.

"How much?" Lyra asked, digging into a small, worn coin purse tied to her belt.

"Four silver," Ren stated casually.

Lyra paused, her hand hovering over her meager collection of coins. That was double the standard market rate for a basic health potion back in the town above.

She looked up at Ren, her orange eyes narrowing suspiciously. He wasn’t being generous; he was blatantly extorting her in the middle of a hostile dungeon.

Oddly enough, that realization made her relax completely. She vastly preferred dealing with greedy, predictable opportunists over self-righteous preachy heroes who demanded gratitude.

She pulled out four silver coins and tossed them through the damp air. Mandy caught them effortlessly, tucking them into his own pockets with a highly satisfied nod.

"Pleasure doing business with you," Ren said smoothly, turning his back on her. "Let’s go. We have a floor to clear."

The trio began to walk away, heading deeper into the murky gloom of the swamp.

"Wait!" Lyra called out, stopping them in their tracks and Ren paused, glancing over his shoulder with an arched brow.

Lyra stepped forward, her posture rigid.

She looked at the three of them, assessing their obvious combat prowess. "Are you... are you heading to the other side of the Swamp? Because I need to get there, and I need an escort. I will pay you."

Ren fully turned around, slipping his hands back into his pockets. "Escort missions through an active dungeon floor are a bit expensive. How much are you offering?"

They negotiated back and forth for a tense minute. Lyra was desperate, and Ren was perfectly willing to bleed her dry of some of her adventuring funds.

They finally settled on a price of seven silver coins, payable upon safe arrival at the eastern ridge.

"Lead the way," Ren gestured lazily.

As they fell into a diamond formation with Eternia taking the vanguard, Mandy watching the rear, and Ren walking casually beside Lyra in the center... she glanced at him.

"Is this your first time on Floor 2?" Lyra asked, genuinely curious how a group this strong hadn’t already mapped the area.

Once Eternia proudly stated that it was indeed their first time, Lyra let out a small sigh and took on the role of the guide.

"Alright, listen closely," She began. "The other side of the swamp houses the entrance to the deeper caverns of Floor 2. I need a very specific alchemical root that only grows near that entrance."

She gritted her teeth, her hands clenching into tight fists at her sides. "It’s... it is incredibly important to me."

Ren knew exactly what it was for. It was the primary ingredient required to brew the painkiller for her sick sister.

He didn’t say a word, merely offering a polite nod for her to continue.

"The standard monsters here are goblins, Hobgoblins, and poisonous frogs as well as the Swamp monsters," Lyra explained, pointing toward the murky water. "But you need to be extremely careful of the apex predator of this biome... The Swamp Dragon."

Mandy whimpered quietly from the rear. "A... a dragon?"

"It’s not a dragon but an oversized C-Rank snake monster," Lyra clarified, keeping her eyes glued to the dark water. "It respawns exactly every five days, and it is incredibly territorial. It doesn’t fly. It ambushes from below. The most dangerous part about it is its natural camouflage. When it waits for prey, it submerges its entire massive body beneath the black water. The only part visible is the top of its head, which perfectly mimics the appearance of a large, mossy rock."

She pointed toward a cluster of stepping stones protruding from the bog ahead of them. "We have to hop along the rocks to cross the deep sections. Do not step on any rock that looks too smooth or lacks deep roots... If you step on the Dragon, it will drag you under."

"Understood," Ren said, finding the specific mechanics of the dungeon fascinating in a live environment.

They reached the edge of the deep bog. The water here was completely opaque, swirling with toxic runoff.

A treacherous path of jagged, moss-covered stones created a natural bridge across the fifty-yard expanse.

"Follow my exact path," Lyra ordered, taking a running start and leaping onto the first stone.

Eternia followed effortlessly, her agility making the jumps trivial. Ren bounded across the rocks with casual grace, while Mandy struggled with his arms windmilling wildly to maintain his balance with every terrifying leap.

They were halfway across the deep section when the swamp reacted to their presence.

SPLASH! HISS!

From the murky water to their left, three massive Swamp Snakes... monstrous scaled serpents thick as tree trunks launched themselves entirely out of the water like coiled springs. Their jaws were unhinged dripping with highly corrosive green venom.

"Ambush!" Eternia shouted, her curved blades already flashing as she sliced the first serpent out of the air in a spray of blood.

Lyra, currently mid-air between two jagged stepping stones, saw the second serpent lunging directly toward her torso.

She couldn’t block it without losing her momentum and falling into the toxic water.

Relying on her honed reflexes, she violently twisted her hips in an attempt to dodge one of the jumping swamp snake monsters.

Tilting wildly through the damp air, she successfully evaded the snapping venomous jaws but the erratic maneuver completely threw off her trajectory.

Lyra overshot her intended landing zone.

She flailed her arms, desperately trying to correct her fall, and crashed heavily onto a different stone entirely.

The Heroine hit the surface hard, rolling onto her hands and knees then she let out a breath of relief, thankful she hadn’t fallen into the water.

However, Lyra immediately realized something was horribly wrong.

The surface beneath her palms wasn’t jagged or hard like natural cavern stone. It was strangely smooth, slightly rubbery and covered in a thick layer of slimy artificial moss.

Worse, the "rock" was slowly rising and falling in a terrifying breathing pattern.

She had landed on the exact head she had described to avoid.

Lyra looked around in alarm and before anyone could react, a tongue whipped out from below, wrapping around her body and dragging her underneath.

"He—"

SPLASH!