Mr. Rogers fell into an open crevice. His hand outstretched, grabbing hold of the rope that slid across his fingers, creating a rope burn. He didn’t even hiss in pain and just grabbed a hold, slamming into the side of the cliff. Air escaped his lips as he twirled around a few times before he finally stopped.
“Mr. Rogers!” Mike shouted in alarm. “Are you okay?!” He reached down to grab hold of the rope. With a pull, he started to pull him up.
Red bolted up. “Let me help,” Red said with strength, magic crackling around her. “Strengthen!” She shouted towards Mike, where her purplish aura of magic zoomed out to wrap around him. It didn’t take long for Mike’s body to pull Mr. Rogers a lot quicker than before.
Mr. Rogers frowned, dangling in the air. Stabilizing himself, he pulled himself up, scaling the wall. It didn’t take long for Mr. Rogers to come out, pulling his body up without too much assistance.
Strengthening himself, Mr. Rogers walked on over with barely any injury, but the rope burned on his hand.
“Do you need healing?” Snow asked; she couldn’t help him up, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t heal him.
“No, I’ll recover in a couple of minutes. Thought, thank you for the offer.” Mr. Rogers said with a definite nod. His skin had already started to heal, allowing the skins to meld back to its pristine white skin.
“Okay, that was quite an adventure.” Mike had said with a dry chuckle. “How are you holding up, Snow?”
“Good, actually,” Snow was feeling a bit better than before. The throbbing pain was dimming down; she had a feeling that as time passed by, she would be able to walk again without any help. “I just need a bit more time.”
“Then I suggest we reset for a while.”
“Yea,” Red said vigorously, bobbing up and down her head. “I can start concocting some extra potions that I have been working on that might help us here.”
“Wait, you're an alchemist?”
“No. I just experiment on things.” Red tilted her head, she placed her hand on her hips.
“Isn’t that the same thing?”
“You need an actual license to be an alchemist.”
“Then, you are saying you are an illegal one.”
“Yep.”
Mike said in disbelief, “so you are feeding us illegal drugs that could harm the body?!”
“Well, no. I have tested these out before, and they don’t have any side effects.”
“How are you so sure?”
“Because I’m a genius,” Red said with a puff of her cheeks, she said with an arrogant demeanor that made everyone else stare at her in silence.
Snow couldn’t help but reach out and pinch her cheeks.
“What was that for?” Red rubbed her cheeks a few times, glaring at her.
Snow shrugged. She couldn’t help but stifle her laughter.
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“What?”
“You just reminded me of a little bunny. That’s all.”
“Hey! I’m not a bunny!”
“Sure, you aren’t.”
Snow leaned backward, trying to get herself comfortable. She was glad that they were taking a break. Her stomach growled a few more times, telling her that she was getting hungry. With a simple motion, she brought up her watch and opened up the storage feature. Scanning through, she pulled out a loaf of bread, sandwich meat, cheese, and mayo. It didn’t take long for her to whip up a quick sandwich for herself and the others.
Everyone gratefully took one, even Mr. Rogers. She thought he would summon out a blood pack, but he, too, was casually eating the sandwich without showing any sign of discomfort.
Snow started, munching on a sandwich, unable to say anything.
Eventually, Mr. Rogers replied to her stares. “Human food is still something we can eat and have a taste for, but blood is our main source of food.”
“I didn’t say anything.” Snow took another bite, finishing her sandwich.
“You’re stares told me otherwise.”
Snow blushed for being caught. She didn’t know much about Vampires except for the text that she had read, but it wasn’t enough but some silly rumors even then. The secrecy that they keep about themselves was quite extensive, keeping their peculiar weakness hidden from society and blending with them.
“What do you guys think? What’s really in the middle of this city, and don’t you guys think that this place reminds you guys back at home?” Red asked; she licked her fingers that had mayo on it. “I get a horrible feeling about this dungeon.”
“It does have an uncanny representation of it.” Mr. Rogers had said with interest. “There has been evidence that these are other worlds.”
“True, but whatever happens here has a high chance of something happening to ours,” said Mike, rubbing his chin.
“There is definitely that possibility. But, please remember this is a dungeon.” Red was looking for more food to eat. “Anything inside the dungeon has their own set of rules, connecting worlds together and warping it to the dungeon’s liking.”
“So basically, it is another world, but not.”
“Exactly.” Red finished grabbing another sandwich and voraciously gobbling it up. “You can think that the dungeon took a piece of a planet. It isolated an area that converted into a temporary dungeon. So, when the dungeon core is destroyed, it would free the trapped area and send it back to its original world. The process repeats over and over again.”
“Wait, how did nobody hear about this?” Snow asked. This was her first time hearing more about the dungeon. The last time was where the dungeon would be formed, and its purpose, but how the dungeon was created was something that she had suspicion on.
“I just thought of it.” Red smacked her lips a few times. “It was a theory that I had in my mind for a while now, but after entering this dungeon, I’m 95% certain it is true.”
“Then the other 5%?”
“We need to break the dungeon core, and I’ll give you a definite answer.” Red finished off another sandwich. For someone so small, she had an endless pit of stomach. Snow couldn’t help but watch her gobble up more food.
They continued their pleasant conversation, learning a bit more about each other until everyone was full. Sitting down for a while, everyone sat in silence.
For the last few minutes, Snow’s mind was busy with her ankle. She could see the swelling had almost disappeared, allowing her to move it without too many problems. Eventually, she was able to stand up, tapping her feet a few times.
“It should be all healed, right?” Red was snacking on some cookies, which Snow wondered where in the world she had summoned out from.
“Yea. Thanks for that medicine. I would have been limping around for a few more hours.” Snow was glad that they were now able to push on ahead without having to dally any longer.
“Seriously, you’re a genius to be able to get it as close to an actual magic healing.”
“I know I am.” Red cutely said. She gave a squirrel-like expression, where one wanted to reach over and pinch her on her cheeks again. To see a different side of Red made Snow smile as she was always engrossed in something that occupied her mind.
They continued walking through the large intricate underground passage that seemed to split up ways into multiple large rooms. Sometimes, they weren’t lucky and ended up at a dead end.
Other times, they found themselves in another beautiful cave with various herbs that they have never seen before.
Red got excited, almost panting with exhilaration at the thought of finding new plants and animals that she could use to create new things.
Snow’s storage was being filled. She had made a specific deal with Red to be the first one to get all her completed products, securing her future deals in exchange for helping her.
Red wasn’t someone who would easily give things away. Mostly because all the products she made were quickly lapped up by her company, she only got the profit.
A handful of Hellhounds popped up from time to time, but the party members quickly handled the monsters without much difficulty.
It was a walk in the park for them for the first four hours. But as time went by, the number of Hellhounds drastically increased.
At first, they didn’t overthink it. Snow, who didn’t take part in almost every single fight, was finally pulled in to assist at times.
Even Mr. Rogers was getting much more severe and excited than before. His leisure activity of indifference started to change. His nonchalant attitude now had a flavor of battle mode frenzy. His sharpened fingers pierced another Hellhound with ease and was flung to the side like a ragdoll.
“At the rate that we are going, I wouldn’t be surprised if another wave will be coming.” Mike spat. He had to flick his sword that had green goo covering most of it.
“That is what will be happening in….3...2...1,” Mr. Rogers said with a grin. Right on time, hundreds of Hellhounds howl could be heard, rebounding through the walls.
“For christ sake! Can’t we ever rest?!” Mike was breathing a bit ragged.
They have been fighting nonstop for the past four hours. Their pace was slowing down tremendously, making it annoying.
The only one who was enjoying the mass slaughtering was Mr. Rogers. Whose eyes were glowing red, and his smile became bigger and bigger? His thirst for battle and blood was shown even more as the night drew on and on.