Daily Life in a Dungeon Part 3
Rewinding the clock back a bit, it was 6 in the morning when the first rays of sunshine beamed into the overly cluttered classroom.
In a decrepit corner of the room, were two, slightly stained mattresses. These mattresses were placed directly besides one another, all in order to make room for the three adolescent bodies which currently rested on their surface.
The faint trace of drool which slithered down a certain redheaded girl’s face was hardly noticeable within the mass of developing legs, scattered strand of hair and sweat covered backs. From the content expressions on each of their faces, it was an obvious enough observation that these three were currently in deep sleep.
The slow and steady rising of their chests, the quiet breathing sounds that escaped from their slightly parted lips, and those crestfallen shut eyes, decorated by a plethora of tiny hairs - it was an overly peaceful scene that looked a bit out of place in a half destroyed classroom.
Unbeknownst to the peacefully sleeping girls, a single figure slowly loomed over the beds. He glanced down at them for a moment, his eyes slowly drifting away before he seemingly regained his composure and shook his head restlessly. And then, with a somewhat tired sigh, he left for a moment before coming back with a metallic bucket. Its contents sloshed noiselessly inside.
The man glanced down at the girls once again before his gaze returned back to the bucket. With another tired sigh, he psyched himself up before-
“““AAGHHH!”””
A chorus of shrieks shattered the transient morning atmosphere as three bodies immediately shot up from their original positions. The last traces of drowsiness seemingly evaporated away, as their eyes scanned their surroundings restlessly.
Eventually, all three of their gazes landed on the figure in front of them. The one who held a pale metallic bucket- whose contents had been emptied - in one hand while his face was etched with an expression of tiredness.
“Good Morning.” He suddenly spoke nonchalantly, causing a wave of groans to escape from the girls’ throats.
“Ugh… Hide, I wished you’d stop waking us up like that…” A redheaded girl warily spoke back as she began to stretch out her surprisingly stiff limbs.
“Well, maybe next time you should wake up when I first call you.” The youth replied back.
“Did you even attempt to wake us up this morning?” Another girl, one with a pelt of dirty blonde hair cascading over her face, warily asked, her tone filled with an obvious sense of suspicion.
“... Of course I did.” There was a slight pause, but it went unnoticed.
“Uuuu….” The last girl, the small one with black messy bedhead which did not look out of place, groaned out as she held her head between her small palms. “...Even though it's my skill, why..? It's not supposed to hurt, so why?... Uuuu…”
The youth ignored their senseless talk as he turned around and headed towards the table. He quickly picked a seat from around the table and sat down. After a slight pause, he turned back around towards the girls and lightly said, “Cielle, Hina, Cher, hurry up, it’s time to eat.”
****
The group started off the day like usual, with a light meal of preserved goods and cooked meat.
Throughout the morning, an easy going and pleasant atmosphere wafted throughout the room. There wasn’t much conversation - as the majority of the people present weren’t really morning people, but still, a morning filled with ease completely betrayed the reality around them.
After eating, the three girls saw Hide off as he began walking in a familiar direction.
They knew where he was going and what he intended to do, so they didn’t worry much. Rather, in their minds, the thought that anything within this dungeon could kill the man completely passed through their heads. In their eyes, the image of his receding back was one that conveyed strength and trust.
When Hide’s receding figure finally vanished from their eyes, disappearing off into a corner of the hall, the girls refocused themselves.
“Well, I guess, it’s our time to go too.” Hina spoke lightly as she began to don on the set of equipment Hide had specially made for them.
“Un.” “Yeah,” The other two replied with a complacent nod as they too followed suit.
When they first received the equipment from Hide, they were surprised at how much protection it provided. The armor provided a few useful stat boosts that would have normally taken a few dozens of levels to bridge. With just a simple set of chestplates, knee and elbow pads, and some gauntlets, they instantly gained stats easily worth several levels.
For the girls, this was an amazing thing. After having fully immersed themselves in the blood and gore that so often frequented the dungeon, they knew full well how important stats were. Especially for the two whose builds closely resembled that of magician and healer. To Hina and Cielle, the armor had long since become something as valuable as life itself.
After everyone was all set and ready to go, they quickly left the base and headed off into the hallway. They glanced briefly around the sparse corridor, before their feet took them towards the opposite direction Hide had traveled to.
Currently, their goal was the “Amphibious zone” or more commonly known as the indoor swimming pools. Of course, this was all in order to hunt the monsters that resided there.
The Frogs. Their official names were “Wetlanders”, but to the girls, they much rather preferred to call them simply as frogs, a name that was befitting of their appearance.
The Frogs themselves were relatively strong when compared with the rest of the dungeon monsters. They were a little bit stronger than the dwarflings, but the most troublesome or rather, the most unique part about them though, was that there were a lot of them.
Although their Elite had died a week ago, and they were certain that the Frogs had stopped spawning as well, the truth of the matter is, their numbers still hadn’t decreased. The reason for this was simple: Eggs.
Apparently, the Elite monster, before it had died, had laid thousands of eggs, all dispersed between the 3 indoor pools within the main building. Once these eggs hatched, more and more monsters would be born as a result. Of course, the primary reason why so many of the eggs were allowed to hatch was that the girls didn’t go out of their way to destroy the eggs before they hatched. This was because the amount of monsters they could level grind on was becoming limited, so rather than destroying potential exp, it was better to wait for it to reach fruition.
As they neared the closest swimming pool, they passed a horde of Wisps that congregated in the hallways and corridors. The scene had become rather commonplace for the girls, and with experienced motion, they instantly covered their exposed faces with a piece of cloth or fabric.
They peacefully walked forward, not minding the floating cores that gathered within the clouds of colorless smoke.
“I can sense a flow of mana from them…” Hina mumbled absentmindedly as she stared at a nearby core.
“Flow of mana?” Cher asked questioningly as she tilted her head to the side. Cher wasn’t a magician, nor had she any real experience with manipulating mana with the exception of her skill [Magic Reinforcement], so she was left clueless as to what Hina was talking about.
“Unn.” Hina nodded. “I can sort of feel it… a weird feeling that makes your skin tingle and the pit of your stomach turn…. It’s weird to describe, Sis, you can feel it too, right?”
“Yeah...”Cielle responded as her head bobbed up and down. “I can feel it… due to the magic perception stat…”
“Ah, yeah, there was that too.” Hina lightly responded as she opened her eyes slightly and nodded to herself.
“What magic perception stat?” Cher asked once again, her eyes perking up with a sort of mild amusement.
“Ah, it’s a new stat we recently acquired. If I remember correctly, it was about the same time I got the Meditation skill. Sis has it too.”
“Uoh? Hina and Mistress are starting to sound like real magicians!”
They lightly conversed while they passed through the halls. Eventually, the familiar set of oaken double doors greeted their eyes.
Having arrived at the doorway, Cher timidly peaked through the cracked glass window, and inexplicably shuddered. This shudder wasn’t due to fear or anything extreme like that, but rather, was due to a memory.
“Ugh…. do we really need to hunt in the pools today?” Cher complained as her eyes slightly darkened from her recollection. “I have a few… bad memories of this place…”
Hearing this, the other two girls exchanged quick glances, before they broke off into a rather awkward laugh.
As they scratched their heads aimlessly, the two looked away, barely avoiding eye contact with the currently downtrodden Cher.
A recollection of the events that dated back about a week ago surfaced in their minds.
****
“I need you.” A sudden and rather shocking declaration escaped from Hide’s lips that day. His usually pasty eyes were now glued tightly to Cher’s own.
As expected, the others were as equally surprised as the recipient of that gaze was - especially a particularly messy haired individual who leaked a sort of menacing aura as she stared at the two figures before her.
In contrast to Cielle’s rather cold gaze, Cher’s reaction was quite a stark difference. The most noticeable trait was the growing redness that dotted Cher’s rosy cheeks.
After some reluctance accompanied with embarrassing glances, Cher finally managed to spit out, “M-me? What do you- I mean, w-why?”
In the face of Cher’s poorly stuttered words, Hide paused for a moment.
His gaze briefly glanced over to Cielle and Hina who stood at the back of the room. Hina, who had been busy at the time, did not notice, but Cielle surely did. Her eyes grew wide, and as she was about to take a step forward, Hide’s attention once again refocused on Cher.
His hands grasped onto Cher’s shoulders, causing a slight squeak to escape from her throat.
“I need you.” He once again stated, this time more resolutely than last time. “There’s something very important that I need you to do for me… and I’m afraid that you’re the only person I can ask.”
Under Hide’s resolute, and somewhat determined expression, Cher felt as if her knees were weakening. She wanted to sit down and cover her peach red face, but Hide’s firm, yet soft grip held her in place. Hide’s constant gaze was also another issue which Cher had to deal with.
“Please” Hide once again spoke. “ I need you, Cher.”
Overhearing those words, Cielle psyche seemingly shattered as she fell from shock. Her sister, who just now noticed the state her sister was in, was instantly surprised, letting out a confused “Eh, Sis?! What’s Wrong?!”
Meanwhile, Cher fiddled awkwardly with her fingers as she inadvertently looked down. Her face heated to the extent where she felt as if her whole body was letting out smoke. Her eyes would occasionally shoot upwards, sending a few sly glances over to Hide’s unchanging face. All the while, she mumbled incoherently under her breath.
After a while, Cher finally managed to properly form words and she replied with a bashful expression, “Ah..um… O-okay…” She went on, looking up slowly at Hide’s face. “I-I may be inexperienced but please take care of me….”
Hearing those words, Hide’s face brightened almost instantly as he replied back with a firm, “Good! Then, let’s go!”
****
A little while after that exchange, the situation had divulged into a way that Cher, or anybody else for that matter, had not expected.
Currently, the redheaded girl found herself tied to a rope by her waist. Her legs dangled freely in the air, while her arms were resting limply besides her. In one of her hands was a loosely knotted rope that connected upwards. Directly below her was a murky green pool of water.
“H-how did this happen…?”
Cher’s exasperated voice leaked out from her lips, as her gaze traveled above her.
There, from the origin of the rope that she currently dangled from, was an opened portion of the ventilation shafts. Cher could clearly see Hide and the others’ faces as they poked out to watch Cher’s pathetic figure.
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She could feel her eyes slightly wetten, but at the same time, for reasons unknown, her face was starting to redden. The uncomfortable irritation produced by the tightly constricting rope… wasn’t so uncomfortable anymore.
Cher’s gaze once again traveled below her. There, almost camouflaged within the water, was a Giant frog-like monster. It swam around leisurely, propelling itself through the pool with thick, and well muscled hind limbs. Within the pool, Cher could also make out several clumps of black and white that seemed to endlessly swim about within the pool.
“See those black and white dots in the water?” From up above her, Cher could hear Hide’s voice as he lightly conversed with Cielle besides him. “Those things over there are tadpole eggs.”
“Ah, now that you mention it, they do somewhat resemble tadpole eggs, albeit the color is a bit off and they’re slightly larger than regular eggs.” Hina chimed in and joined in on their conversation.
“Doesn’t it?” Hide ruefully laughed as he once again continued to explain various things he discovered about the creature.
Hearing this light hearted conversation, a feeling of neglect welled up in Cher, but strangely enough, her face was now redder than when they were at the Base.
Before Cher could calm herself down, her body instantly fell. She let loose a quick yell of surprise before her words suddenly garbled, and she found herself underwater.
Cher who was still as confused as ever, waved around a frantically, the noose in her hand swaying with the murky water.
From atop the safety of the ventilation shafts, Cielle watched this all with a complicated expression on her face. The previous jealousy that had welled up in Cielle’s heart had all but dissipated. As she glanced back at Hide’s eager expression as he began pulling in the rope, and as she looked back over at Cher’s figure, which couldn’t even be seen at all due to the discoloration of the pool, that feeling of jealousy was quickly replaced by a feeling of pity.
Cielle clasped her hands together in a sort of prayer just as Cher’s exhausted face popped up from the water.
Looking at that sickly green expression again, Cielle completely confirmed, that without a shadow of a doubt, Cher was currently human bait.
****
Cher, who remembered the events of that tragic day, stomped angrily at the tiled floor. She glanced into the window once more before she pumped herself up with a huff.
“Agh, Damn it! Let’s just get this over already!”
With that sort of resigned determination, Cher bursted into the room, and their hunt began.
Naturally, the other two, who gave of complicated expressions, followed suit, as they too started.
For the girls, their day had just begun.
****
“Yay! I leveled up again today!” Cher floated a happy expression, while she quickly evaluated her current stats. The prior anger and dejection she had felt earlier had naturally vanished after 3 hours of nonstop level grinding.
“Oh, good job Cher.” “... Congrats…”
The other two, who stood side by side behind Cher as they walked into the hall, spoke light congratulatory words. Their expressions as well, were somewhat content, their lips curving into slight smiles as they looked on at the overly excited redheaded girl who skipped ahead of them.
“Yeah!” She spoke happily with a toothy grin. “I think it might be due to my new skill, Shield Bash. Ever since then, my leveling speed has greatly increased! If I keep this pace up, then it won’t be long until I catch up with you guys!”
“That’s good to hear. I remember how long it took you to get that skill…” Hina replied back as she remembered a scene from 2 days ago.
“Yeah… anyways, are we meeting back up with Hide now? What’s the schedule for today?” Cher asked in a joyful tone of voice, her earlier excitement still present.
“Um… Let me think… I think Hide’s should still be out. I remember him saying we’d meet up a little after 1 pm.” Hina answered complacently as she placed a finger on top of her chin. “I guess for now, we’ll level by ourselves until the appointed time.... but…”
Hina’s gaze shifted towards Cielle. Cielle noticed, and after a while, she nodded, as her gaze shifted to Cher. Cher reciprocated this gaze with another nod, as her eyes then moved back over to Hina.
Hina smiled lightly, as she finally spoke out, “Then, for now, let’s take a break.”
*****
After they took a 1 hour break in order to restore their stamina, the girls once again resumed leveling. Time flew by, and it was now time for their meeting with Hide.
Like usual, the girls hunted with the youth, displaying and practicing their team work to the utmost of their ability. During the particular hunt, they stumbled upon an Elite, which, with the power of the trio, was quickly brought down to submission.
It’s been some time since then. Right now, the girls were back at the base. Hide had gone off to solo by himself. This habit of his to go off alone greatly troubled the girls. They knew he was strong, stronger than the three of them, that’s for sure, but they still couldn’t help but worry.
Despite their immense faith and trust in Hide, it was still natural to worry when they knew that the man was currently knowingly placing himself in danger.
The three of them tried to push these worrying thoughts away from their minds as they settled down for the night.
They had dinner, washed up with a little help from Hina’s water magic, and were currently relaxing in the cluttered classroom. Well, at least Cher was.
Cielle and Hina, who sat cross legged on the mattresses were currently “training”. Hina, was on one side of the room, her back pressed up against the wall, as she closed her eyes and concentrated. Cielle, for some reason, was on the other side of the room. She sat cross legged on Hide’s mattress, and while her expression was as serene and concentrated as her sister’s the audible sound of vigorous sniffing was hard to miss.
The two of them were currently using their new skill, [Meditation].
[Meditation] was a magic based skill that the two of them acquired simultaneous to acquiring the [Magic Perception] stat. This skill was fostered through repeated attempts at trying to “feel” or sense the new found energy around them. For the two, who possessed the titles [Healer] and [Grand Magus], the skill was learned fairly easily without much fanfare.
[Meditation] had the effects of increasing mana recovery. While this was a convenient effect in itself, its true merit came in the form of facilitating the permanent increase in their mana capacity. Mana, like health or stamina, was usually a skill that couldn’t be increased through unallocated stat point distribution. With the help of this skill, they could permanently increase their mana, allowing them to last longer in the heat of battle.
As the two currently immersed themselves in training, Cher sat lazily to the side. Her back leaned against a chair as her fingers twiddled idly. There was really nothing Cher could do, save for practice training, at this time of the night.
While sporting a bored and lethargic expression, she was left with the task of night watch, while Hide hunted and the girls trained.
The night was going smoothly, like usual, when a set of soft footsteps suddenly registered in Cher’s ears from a distance. Cher’s figure instantly shot up on the chair, as her ears perked up. She concentrated, and once again heard the soft trodding of steps, this time though, she could hear the steps growing louder and louder as they neared her location.
“That… it's too early to be Hide…” After coming to this conclusion, Cher was immediately on guard.
She bolted out from her chair as she ran to pick up her Edge shield.
Since the other two were currently concentrating and using [Meditation], they had a dimmed awareness of their surroundings. As such, Cher immediately ran over to break the duo from their stupor.
“Hey, Hina, there’s something -”
BAM!
In the middle of waking Hina up, the classroom sliding door was suddenly opened with excess excitement. The resounding bang was loud enough to jerk both Cielle and Hina up from the depths of their concentration.
Before those two could even turn around to look at the sudden intruder, a bucket that had been propped on top of the door, like some sort of childish school prank, had toppled onto the intruder’s head.
The mass of gelatinous black poured down on the unsuspecting person’s head, completely enveloping their faces in the bucket’s contents.
“AAAAAAAAHHHHH!”
A piercing screech of pure pain bursted forth from the intruder’s lungs. The scalding black quickly invaded into their pores, causing their pain to elongate. Unbeknownst to the victim, their health was also steadily decreasing.
Using the momentary confusion as an opportunity, the trio instantly entered into a battle formation. Cher moved to the front, guarding Hina behind her, while Hina herself began gathering mana and prepping her magic.
From the other side of the room, Cielle’s crouching figure was already encircled by a ring of black matter.
After several more seconds of screaming, the intruder’s legs gave out from the shock, as they toppled to the floor. The bucket on their face rolled helplessly to the ground, revealing an expression of contorted agony.
The girls, who were all preparing for attack, saw the intruder’s expression for the first time. Their battle ready stances awkwardly tumbled as they recognized the face of contorted agony.
“You… what are you doing here?” A faint voice, one filled with obvious confusion, escaped from Hina’s lips.
It was one of the people from the President’s group. A chestnut haired girl named Emiko. Former member of the Library committee.
Hearing Emiko’s continued groans of agony, the trio exchanged awkward glances. After a while, Hina casted a lesser heal on her, while softly mumbling a “sorry for that”.
Since Cielle’s Gemini blue won’t work on Emiko due to the fact that she had no actual physical injuries, Hina was left with the task of healing her. Due to the fact that Hina’s own lesser heal wasn’t often used, it took a considerably long time for Emiko’s health to reach max once again.
After the successful healing, the girl who was still curled up on the ground in a fetal position, finally looked up.
In her face, other than that previous expression of pain, was a kaleidoscope of different emotions.
Panic. Fear. Anger.
To Hina, Cher, and Cielle, who each interpreted her expression differently, they at least all came to the same conclusion that something bad had happened. After all, Emiko wasn’t exactly a usual guest to their base.
“W-what was that black- you know what, never mind. More importantly…” Emiko, whose expression was morphed into ceaseless urgency shook her head, as if to clear away her thoughts. “More importantly, Where’s Hide?!”
Emiko suddenly asked while her eyes restlessly scanned the surrounding room.
“Umm… Hide’s currently out right now…” Cher replied back, somewhat softly as she fidgeted in her spot.
“...Hide’s not here…” Cielle followed up.
“W-what?! Emiko’s voice rose in volume. It was now more noticeably panicked than before. She fretted back and forth, as she began to stand unsteadily to her feet.
The former library committee member paced awkwardly in the room while subdued cursing and swearing could be heard from under her breath.
Hina, who had a bad premonition looming over her mind, finally couldn’t take it anymore, and asked, “What… What’s wrong?”
Emiko immediately stopped, and shot a pale faced stare over at the girl. She hesitated for a moment. Biting her lip strongly enough to cause a streak of blood to stream down her face, Emiko weighed in her thoughts, her actions, and her options, before she tensely gulped and nodded to herself.
Her eyes connected with the others in the room, before, in a horse, all too desperate voice, she spoke.
“It-It’s bad. Really bad. Satou, he… he finally attacked.”
*****
Author's Note: Thanks for reading. If you liked the chapter or story in general, please rate or review. I appreciate it.