Chapter 4

We were now in one of the many caves hidden through the meadow dungeon floor, a damp space filled with green and blue comfortable bioluminescent moss.

It was a pretty great place to rest, if I’m being honest. Only one entry, tiny ponds of water that were fresh enough, and quite deep to be nicely protected from the outside.

This floor was a real oddity compared to the hellish traps that they normally were around this depth.

The twin cats were sleeping on sleeping bags I had recovered as loot once upon a time, long ago.

I was also lying on one of those and, with the moss covering the ground, it was more comfortable that any bedding I had experienced as of late, Death’s bedroom notwithstanding.

I looked like I wasn’t doing anything but, my eyes closed, I was in fact using the Workspace skill to cook and prep some equipment and potions for them.

Sadly neither my Workspace, Cooking nor Potion Making skills were that high since I didn’t really use them down here; cooking was a waste of time and my body couldn’t handle potions properly thanks to my poor stats and single-digit level.

For the twins, however, it was another story. Everything I had in my inventory was too mana-rich for them to eat, for starters, so I had to suck the mana away. I also wanted my cooking to taste, if not good, at least okay. I may be used to eating raw monster meat, but those two weren’t half-monsters like me. No need to torture them, being so deep in the dungeon would be hard enough already.

“Hm. Hu?” Kael started moving, blinking his eyes as he looked around, fearful and confused.

“Easy now. You’re safe.” I said, sitting on the bed cross-legged, my long skirt opened around me like a flower.

Now that he was awake I could pull some crystal lanterns out to bring more light to the cave, giving a warmer atmosphere to our surroundings as I placed them around us.

His sister wouldn’t wake up anytime soon, though, seeing how overloaded her body and mind had been by the flood of new skills and levels that she received from the fight.

Even with Terrenacht’s XP debuf, killing multiple monsters with a Threat Range far higher than your own would yield quite the harvest.

* Survivor level 13

Oh, her commoner class mutated?

Interesting.

But that means she’ll have an even harder time adapting.

Just let her sleep, she needs it anyway.

Restoring stamina isn’t the same as sleeping, after all.

I left my manyfold mind turned on for now because I needed to protect those two. When it was only me, I didn’t need it, dying wasn’t a problem anyway, but for protecting other targets I alone wasn’t enough.

Sadly.

You’re too talkative.

We’re you, Main.

If anything, you’re the one that’s too chatty.

Anyway.

“You are in a safe place. Your sister is just there, sleeping to recover.” I quickly explained to the boy, waving a hand toward Lana.

He stopped for a second, thinking about what I said and his next question, most probably.

“Who are you?” He asked, since we were seemingly safe and I had already answered the first questions he would have voiced.

“You can call me Nate. I’m an adventurer,” I explained succinctly, “and you are?”

“Ah, hum, I’m Kael?” He didn’t think I would ask him back.

He’s not that smart, is he?

No, he just woke up in an unknown place, to an unknown lady.

And after passing out of exhaustion!

We wouldn’t be in that much of a better state if it was us.

“Well met, Kael. Would you mind telling me what your sister’s called?” I nodded and asked.

“She’s Lana.” He answered, looking at me strangely.

The whole talk would have felt bizarre, and I was never great at breaking the ice.

We looked at each other for a handful of silent seconds.

“...So, where are we?” He finally asked, realizing I wouldn’t take the initiative.

“We’re around the 130th’ floor of the Antitower.”

“...Okay? What’s the Antitower then?”

I blinked a few times.

What do you mean, what’s the Antitower?

Did this kid’s master not even tell him the name of this dungeon?

“ It’s the dungeon you’re in right now. You entered a dungeon before you were brought here, right?” I asked.

“W-well, yes? But our master said it was a newly discovered dungeon, so it didn’t have a name yet?” He said with a shaky voice, as if he was failing a test.

“That’s concerning. You were teleported down here, right? You fell into a trap or something.”

He simply nodded, surprised that I knew about it.

“I thought so. Well, I never heard of trans-dungeon teleportation but it may be a possibility. Anyway, right now, you’re in the Antitower, one of the Five great dungeons.”

He frowned and asked with a prudent voice. “Aren’t there only… Four great dungeons?”

Oh boy. What the fuck happened out there?

***

After that Kael and I spoke some more, about the Four great dungeons, the outside world and what happened to him and his sister.

It turned out that the boy wasn’t wrong or anything. He followed courses on dungeon-diving, was trained to read and write in runes and common, and was pretty smart once he properly woke up and found his cruising speed.

It’s just that, from what he learned, there were only Four Great Dungeons in the world, not five.

That lead me to the revelation that, based on the date he provided me, I had been down here for something like a hundred and twenty years.

A hundred. And twenty. Years.

Unlike normal people, we heroes didn’t have an age displayed in our status window. We wondered why when we first got summoned, but the question had quickly disappeared in front of more pressing matters, like leveling up, getting rewards or, I don’t know, saving the world.

I didn’t know if the other heroes were exactly like me, or if I was the only one that didn’t change because I was half-monster, but maybe we were as impervious to age as we were to death.

Not that I cared right now, though.

Kael then proceeded to explain how he and his sister got here, the whole chebang with the slave trading and the death of their parents. It was quite succinct, but I could feel it was a hard subject so I didn’t press him further.

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At one point, our discussion was interrupted by a loud rumbling and I smirked a little hearing it.

“Are you hungry, by any chance?”

He blushed slightly at my question, embarrassed that his body would betray him like that.

“W-well…” He started, but I interrupted him.

“Here you go.” I said, a bowl of warm, fuming broth appearing in my extended hand.

“Before you eat, though, fair warning: this was made out of the ingredients I have on me, all of them coming from this dungeon. I tried to soften the amount of mana and special effects created by using such rare ingredients, but we’ll start with you only taking a spoonful of that stuff and see how you react, okay?” I explained calmly.

“Uh. You’re sure this stuff is harmless, then?” He asked, understandably concerned.

“No. That’s why you’re going to take a tiny amount of it. Don’t worry, though, I can heal you and cleanse you from any side effects.” I extended a spoon and, worried, he took the bowl and the spoon and slooowly drank a bit of it.

His face directly turned pale as he started choking, spilling the broth on the ground and letting the spoon go to grab his throat.

Fuck.

My healing magic directly wrapped his body in a green shine. One second he was in pain, the next he was left with a surprised expression, his hands still on his throat.

“Tss. This will be a problem, I can’t make it milder than that.” I commented all aloud, looking at him as I was thinking.

Maybe we could force-feed him while healing him?

Even with our spells it could still kill him.

We don’t know the effects that high-end ingredients can have at a such low level.

I have another idea, though.

“I’m sorry. I have a solution to make you able to eat, but we’ll have to wait for your sister to wake up. I need you both for that.”

“S-sure…” He answered, unsure, as I cleaned the mess he made when he reacted badly to my cooking.

***

It took another four hours or so for Lana to wake up from my magic-induced sleep, but at least now she felt a little better.

“Easy now. I had to put you to sleep because of your last battle.” I explained as she sprang to her feet, her hands instinctively reaching for Terrenacht.

“Lana!” However, the girl let go of her cursed weapon when her brother jumped into her arms.

“Kael! How do you feel?!” She asked him, concerned.

“I’m the one that should ask that! What happened?”

I let those two to sort the situation, sitting my back against the wall as I silently waited for them to finish.

She quickly explained how she kept fleeing while carrying him, and how she found me, corroborating my own story of the events.

“But why did I feel like shit after the fight? It was like my head was going to explode!” She finally asked me, the twins now turned toward me.

“You didn’t Identify Terrenacht before accepting to take it from me?” I asked, surprised.

“Identify? Only bigshots have Identify, no?” Kael retorted, Lana nodding.

“Oh. I’m sorry, I’ve been down here for so long, my common sense is not what it was.” I genuinely answered. It was the truth after all.

“Terrenacht is a cursed sword, as I said. Since you picked it up, you’re now bound to it. Part of the curse is that it eats more than half the XP you would get from anything you kill with it. However, this isn’t exactly a bad thing since in exchange, Terrenacht bestows part of the Skill Proficiency of any skill of your kills to its owner. The reason why you felt like shit is most probably because you leveled up multiple times during the fight, your class mutated and you absorbed a ton of mid-level skills that you didn’t already have. Your mind and body would have been strained far beyond what you normally experience, since gaining skills and level is a slow process most of the time.” I ended up explaining.

“...But, isn’t that very powerful? I thought a cursed blade would impose a curse upon the user? Isn’t losing half your XP intake a good deal to gain many skills?” Kael asked with precision, his sister looking at him.

So basically he’s the brain and she’s the muscle?

From what we saw so far, it looks like that.

Hey, we should be careful about oversimplification though.

Yeah, she isn’t dumb.

Yes, he’s most likely just more inquisitive or a bit faster on the uptake.

“You’re right. That’s why I said it was only part of the curse. Wielding Terrenacht makes you quite… hungry. You’ll crave food or distraction or the like. Basically, your basic needs and your hobbies, all the things you like, you’ll develop a bigger hunger for them. The curse of Craving. Terrenacht is a cursed sword of Devouring, after all. Also, if you don’t feed it regularly with XP, it’ll start draining your own, so you need to kill regularly, if not a lot.”

Honestly, Terrenacht was a pretty bad sword for anyone wanting to have a peaceful life, but for a determined adventurer, as long as they were able to manage the craving, it wasn’t that big of a deal.

I had other cursed items to choose from that I could give to Lana, but they were all a lot more troublesome to manage, like taking over your mind, corrupting you or making you go on rampages, such pretty bad things.

Heightened cravings for what you liked and a loss in XP gain wasn’t that bad of a deal in comparison, in particular if you factored the Skills Proficiency drain built-in.

Lana seemed worried, though.

“Don’t fret over it. Down here you’ll have plenty of things to kill, and since there are only monsters around you’ll be able to indulge in any craving you want without problems. And if we make it back to civilization one day, with all the loot I have on me, I’ll be rich enough to cover for your curse. Even if we part ways once we’re freed from this dungeon, I swear to work on making it so your curse isn’t a problem in society.” I simply promised.

“T-thanks?” She said, confused. She then frowned. “Do you mind if my brother and I speak in private for a bit?” She asked.

“Of course not, take your time, I’ll leave you some space.” I nodded at them and walked away, going up the cave to give them some privacy.

***

Half an hour later, I was back on my sleeping bag, the two of them looking determined.

“Why are you helping us?” Was the first question Lana asked.

Good thinking.

They’re not that helpless.

At least they have a working brain.

“Good question. You may have pieced it together by now but, as I said, I’m trapped here. I’ve been in this dungeon for a long time, but I wasn’t able to escape because of a problem of mine.” I started explaining flatly.

“To be more specific, my class is cursed. I’m able to use a lot of different support, debuff and control magic, but I can’t produce damage.”

“...What do you mean, you can’t produce damage?” Kael asked, frowning.

I guess it will be better to just show them.

Instead of answering, I struck Lana with the back of my hand and all my power.

She flew across the cave and crashed into the nearby wall. I may have only 1 point in strength, but my reinforcement skills made it so I was still extremely strong compared to low-level kids like them.

“Lana!” Kael screamed, going to her side. “Why did you-!” He started screaming at me but his sister stopped him.

“I’m alright. I’m alright?” She said to him, then said it again, confused, looking at her body, touching her face where I struck her.

“Why? What happened?” She asked me. They were both a bit wary of me now.

“I thought it was better to show you. I said it, I can’t produce damage. My offensive spells, my unarmed attack, anything I do will produce a damage output of exactly zero, whatever I do. That’s why you were unharmed by my strike, and didn’t even take damage from crashing into the wall. Since the effect emanated from me, it didn’t damage you.”

The kids were surprised and even a bit curious.

“W-wait, does this mean you can’t kill monsters?” Kael asked.

Still has fast.

“Indeed. Your sister saw it, I can only control them, bind them and make their strike miss, but I can’t damage them, and so I can’t kill them. That’s why I can’t escape this dungeon, I’m not strong enough to hard-control my way out of it and I can’t get any kill xp, so my level stagnates, meaning I can’t grow stronger and hope to break out of it.”

“That’s…” Kael said.

“Horrible.” Lana added.

In this world, gaining level was an act full of honor. It was a bragging right, sought after and revered, seen as part of becoming greater and being able to serve your community better, or fulfill your dreams, so for them the idea of being unable to level was, indeed, horrible.

“That’s where you come in.” I added, beating their likely next question to the punch.

“I want to make a deal with you two.”

“A deal?” Kael frowned and Lana squinted.

“Yes. I’m tired of being trapped here. I can’t level up, but you two can. So the plan is, I help you from the backline, support you, feed you and keep you in tip-top shape, I scout for you and basically fulfill all the secondary roles a party needs to dive in a dungeon and, in exchange, you fight, kill, grow stronger and, when you’re strong enough, you get me out of here.”

If I was being frank, this wasn’t really a deal at all. I was basically offering to power-level them and take care of them until they can blast a way out of the dungeon, which was more akin to a golden opportunity for them to grow stronger than it was any kind of real ‘deal’.

Of course those two took some time to think about it, and realized that too, looking at me with suspicion.

“Why are you willing to do that?”

Well, maybe not so fast on the uptake then.

Well, our reason may seem obvious but we’re still suspicious as hell.

“Look, kids. Do you see a lot of adventurers at this depth? Because I don’t. You’re literally the only ones I can rely on. Don’t think I’m that happy to have to train two brats just old enough to equip a weapon and lacking even their first combat class, but I don’t have any other options.”

That was as good an explanation as any, it was the truth after all.

They looked at each other, then looked back at me.

“Are you really going to make us strong?” Lana asked, a craving in her eyes.

Ah, the curse is kicking in.

I’m not sure, Kael has the same look.

Oh? Yes indeed.

They’re just pumped up at the fact that they can get strong, I think.

Well, they are slaves who lived a pretty shitty life because they were weak, soo…

It’s not surprising they want to get stronger.

“Yes, and at the depth we’re at, if we ever reach the surface again I can swear you’ll be monsters in your own right, the kind they write stories about, you know, those about killing legendary monsters or founding kingdoms.” I said calmly, telling nothing but the truth.

They started to smile, their eyes sparkling. “But it will be hard, and you may die. Not that it’s a big deal, since without me you would die in no time down here, as the Hobgoblin incident showed you.” I added, trying to cool their ardor.

They seemed to realize that, too, but it didn’t really impact them that much.

“I’ve felt dead since Mom and Dad died, anyway.” Kael suddenly said, Lana nodding along and, in their eyes, I recognized a void, the same void there was in mine. They were resigned, they had been enduring what life threw at them for too long.

Now, for them, it was either growing strong or withering away.

Perfect.

“Then let’s start at the beginning. You’ll kill me.”