It took me all of two hours wandering this portion of the Underhollow to come to the conclusion that finding food and shelter would be the greatest hurdle for our party. Well, finding food and shelter might be my second greatest hurdle after dealing with their incessant bickering. Ever since our cute little piper brought the rats home, Caro and him had been at it. Nonstop. And I was nearly ready to knock the both out just to get them to shut the fuck up.

“How many times do I need to say that it was an accident?!” Noel asked while throwing his hands around dramatically.

“And how many times have I said that accidents and carelessness aren’t the same thing. You’ve been treating our impending doom as a playground and that nearly got all of us killed. I mean seriously, who just yells into the pits of hell when they first arrive? Did you want all of the monsters for miles to swarm us? Because you did a pretty damn good job of it.” Caro spat back.

“Me yelling had nothing to do with it!”

“You don’t know that!”

Honestly she was making sense, I agreed silently because I didn’t want to add anything else to that fire. Just listening to them was giving me a headache let alone participate. I’d only piss myself off trying to argue with an immature kid.

I was cooking Noel slowly, giving him less attention to me felt like the better way to get under his skin. I ignored him when he talked to me, I didn’t assist him when he needed it. I let him suffer the harsh reality of the Underhollow without others. I helped the others with washing up, but for him I gave a canteen of water without a word. Only returning to retrieve it from him and ask Aureus to refill it.

I knew I was being mean, sadistic even, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t about to treat him like a child just because he was acting like one. He’s a full grown man and needed to take responsibility as one. Since he lost his credibility, he would have to earn it back. I wasn’t going to just let it go because it was an ‘accident’. It took a decent bit of effort to harden my heart towards him though, he looked just like a puppy in the rain. Though, more than my resolve to be a bitch, I was worried that it would take much too long to resolve this attitude of his.

Regardless of that, the second most pressing issue. Food. Shelter. I was struggling to come up with a solution, there was no arable land near us. No forageable foods as far as we could see either. I had already harvested a decent amount of rat meat just in case, and it was looking like we would have to sink to that new low. I thanked the gods that I had the foresight to keep some potatoes just in case as I left my section of Underhollow yesterday… Or two days ago?

Time flowed weirdly here, it was hardly consistent. There were times I would look at the system and watch the time of the surface tick away at almost a surface second per minute our time. While other times it would take nearly an hour for a single second to pass on the surface. I couldn’t understand it.

“What is going on with the time? Why is it like this?”

[“Traveling Spring Painter” asks what you mean.]

“I mean it isn’t a consistent I dunno like ratio? The time… dilation? between the two isn’t consistent at all?” I struggled to put words to what I wanted to say, it felt like there was a right way to say it on the tip of my tongue, but I wasn’t a scientist so what did I know?

[“Seeker of Magic and Knowledge” states that time is relative, adding that the flow of it was distorted by the magic here.]

[“Whispering Playwright behind a Mask” argues that this place was shoddily put together, and they could have done better.]

“Well so much for a day being a week I guess. There’s no real way to predict it then, not here at least.” I sighed.

“Well I mean do we really need to?” Noel asked, looking at me intently. Clearly he was watching me converse with the gods, not that he could see what they were saying. I sniffed and looked away, not dignifying him with a response. From my peripheral vision I could see his head sag. My heart tinged with pity for a moment, it seemed I really had a weak spot for cute things.

I am cute, Master. Right? You said I was cute, you can pay attention to me instead of that stupid human.

Yes Aureus you are quite cute. I should pay much more attention to you than Noel. He needs to sit in the consequences of his actions.

He could have gotten those other mortals killed, he is quite stupid.

Yes, he is stupid. But I don’t want to let him die for that, it isn’t completely his fault he might have been born with half a brain.

He might get you hurt if you keep protecting him though.

Maybe, but you have gotten hurt protecting me.

That’s different.

How?

You’re… Master. You’re better than that human by a lot.

Well, that’s true. The shadow of the man that died in front of me hung over my mind. I just want to avoid more deaths is all. I shivered as I pushed the memory back down – away from my conscious mind. I’d be dealing with that when I had nightmares later, no point in dwelling on it now.

“I’m starving!” Caroline’s whining pulled me out of my thoughts.

“Well, maybe we should stop and make some stew. I collected a decent amount of rat meat and bones. If you're not up for meat we can do a bone broth. It will take a while but we can nap in shifts while it cooks.” I pointed my thumb over my shoulder to a moderately larger and semi-flat portion of rock behind us.

“Rat stew?” Caroline said with her lip curling up at the thought of it.

“Do you see any veggies growing around here? I don’t. I mean maybe we can try exploring the area close to us for anything that might be growing under the rocks, but I’m not sure if we would find anything.” I responded with a shrug.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Yeah… Could you go ahead and start the stew and we can look for things to add?” Reid offered, despite what he said his face was scrunched up with disgust.

Noel let out a groan, but stifled the complaint that was sure to follow when the three of us sent glares in his direction. His mouth clamped shut as if the complaint might break its way out if he wasn’t careful, quickly busying himself with overturning rocks and poking aimlessly at the bugs that scuttled away. Well… rats were better than bugs at least, and they were big and had decent amounts of meat on them.

I walked several paces away, activating my camper item. I walked into the kitchen, deploying my kitchenette and retrieving my new knife from my inventory.

~~*~~

Rat Bone Dagger

Description: A crude dagger created from the bones of an under rat and hide of a horned rabbit.

Damage: 2

~~*~~

I made quick work of the rat meat. I cubed it into smaller bite sized pieces. They seemed willing to try it so rather than starting with a bone broth I decided to get some meat into us. I only had three of the massive under potatoes, that is seriously what they called them. I was starting to wonder how lazy these gods were, just adding under to anything they didn’t want to put effort into naming.

Deciding to be as conservative as possible – we had no clue how long we’d be down here without anything but rats to eat – I took only an eighth of one of the under potatoes. I chopped it into slightly smaller pieces than the meat, hoping to disperse it pretty evenly through each person’s portion. I considered giving Noel a bowl without potatoes, but decided that was too much. Just no meat for Noel, unless he gave a proper apology.

He had been acting like a spoiled kid who didn’t understand the weight of his actions. He hadn’t even offered a real apology, just variations of “I’m sorry alright! I didn’t know! It was an accident!” I was genuinely waiting for him to add “It’s just a prank bro!” to his growing list of excuses. There would be no forgiveness until he learned, not from me at least.

Reid was much too soft, he’d given into his friend after only an hour. I figured that Reid was likely his only friend because of that exact trait. Noel pushed the line and Reid ever so accommodatingly redrew it further back. I wondered how long it would take for him to be pushed to the limit, his back against a wall or a cliff under his feet as he yet again made a new line in the sand.

Once the water began a rolling boil I plopped the meat and potatoes into the pot and made my way back outside. Leaving the camper up as I went to assist in the search. It was strange looking at it from the outside. There must have been some sort of space magic in play because it was rather small from the outside, a gray rounded structure with a single door. Staring at the door I turned, deciding to get Noel for an experiment.

“Noel.” I said towards the crouching figure ten feet from me. His head flew up a hopeful gleam in his eye. I continued, “Come try and open this door.” I pointed towards my camper. A moment of confusion made its way through him before he got up and walked towards me.

“Can I take a shower?” He asked hopefully.

“No. Just try and open it.” I responded coldly.

“Oh.” He let his disappointment show openly in his face and actions as he slunk to the door. Right before he put his hand on the knob he was hit with a small bolt of electricity. He yelped recoiling from it and looked at me with betrayal in his eyes.

“I just wanted to test if anyone could get in regardless of permission.” I responded.

“But you asked me to…” He said with his eyebrows furrowed.

“Yeah I asked you to try and open the door, I didn’t give you permission not really.” I turned on my heel to go scour the area for edible things. Turning over rocks, jabbing my knife into the cracks between them in an attempt to pry them apart. Other than bugs I wasn’t having much luck. On the fifth I found a small nest of rats, about fifteen of them.

One of the rats leapt towards my face, these things were either brave or stupid. Probably both, leisurely I smacked it down with the hilt of my dagger. It cracked loudly as its bones broke from the strike and fell back onto its packmates. I sighed, how annoying. These things barely gave any experience but were so annoying in a group. Even I couldn’t be completely careless when handling too many of them. The only reason I was calm when the first jumped was because I had gotten used to their patterns.

A rat would test the waters, then depending on the response they would either flee or swarm. Pretty swiftly they had scattered into various directions. I snorted as I watched them disappear beneath the rocks. Ultimately we wouldn’t find anything else to eat down there. There wasn’t even any dirt to be found for the potatoes to be grown in. Every single rock I overturned there were just more rocks underneath.

I returned to the camper for the finished soup. We only had the one bowl, so I ate my portion first. I grimaced at the flavor, it was similar to rabbit, but gamier and tough and unfortunately very greasy. After I finished I cleaned the bowl offering it to Caro next, then Reid and finally Noel. He got the bottom of the pot, there was very little potato left and basically no meat. As planned, though I was surprised he didn’t complain once. I was nearly proud of him.

Though, Noel and Caro continued getting on my last nerve. None of us took a break while I was cooking so everyone started getting tired around the same time. Aureus helped me move some rocks to create a makeshift shelter as we all laid down to get some sleep.

“Stop kicking me.” Noel complained quietly through his teeth.

“Then get your nasty self away from me. I’m trying to sleep and you are much too close for me to get comfortable.” Caro hissed.

“Where do you want me to go?” Noel asked.

“I don’t care, just get away from me.”

“Fine.” He got up shambling, a glance was thrown in my direction, but he decided to lay down between Reid and the wall. It was a wise decision. He grumbled that he wouldn’t be able to sleep well there as the ground was rough and pointy. I probably could have, as I had leveled up and increased my constitution it was easier to endure things. That included dealing with pointy or rough surfaces, not that I’d give Noel the comfortable portion of rock.

A flicker of doubt ran through me, was it really necessary? He did seem like he felt bad. No. My resolve strengthened again. He had nearly killed the two people I hold most dear. He would have killed them if I hadn’t come with them. Unless he properly apologized and atoned I should not forgive him. I never really jived with ‘forgive and forget’. I already forget things too easily, but forgetting things that someone had done wrong to me for no reason? No thanks. That’s how you become a doormat, and I wasn’t as kind as my mother. I won’t be.

I rolled to my side, a small faint beam of light illuminating a strip of the interior of our cave just a few inches above my head. Reid was grumbling as he tossed and turned attempting to avoid a similar ribbon of light on his side. I saw a flash of gold through the cracks between the rocks, Aureus was outside hunting in the vicinity and protecting us as we slept. The fact that he didn’t need actual sustenance and rest was strange. He would just use mana to make up for it if necessary, but he did still eat quite a few rats.

In just a couple seconds I was out, it wasn’t the best sleep of my life, but it was quite comfortable considering the circumstances. The morning – if you could call it that – that followed started with the rest of them groaning and complaining as they stretched their stiff and uncomfortable joints.

Aureus can you take the shelter apart please?

“Urgh, why?” Caro complained groggily as the somewhat dim light settled across her face that was now covered with one of her forearms.

“It’s time to get going. We can’t keep sitting around.” I said chipperly. I wasn’t always a morning person, but waking naturally and getting up without any cricks in my neck was a game changer. I’d always woken up stiff and uncomfortable, taking an hour to stretch and settle my body. I was able to get up for the first time in years fresh and full of energy.

A chorus of groans echoed behind me as I set out across the barren wasteland. We continued like that for a few days. Traveling, killing rats we found, eating their meat, sleeping on the hard stone ground, and the three of them getting increasingly irritable as the days passed.