Ari woke up a few hours later, sore from the bad sleeping position and the effects of yesterday's battle. Ari was lucky because, during his sleep, no rectangular creatures appeared and attacked him. The only thing that accompanied Ari in his sleep was silence and fatigue.
Ari then took out some meat, biscuits, and pickles and ate them all together quickly. Ari didn't know if he had a supply of medicine for bruises. Ari didn't even know if he had bruises or just a leftover pain. All Ari knew was that he could heal his mind by enjoying food that had more flavor, which was salty, savory, and crispy.
After finishing his food quickly and drinking a bottle of water, which Ari later realized was a foolish course of action as it meant his water stock was depleting quickly, Ari took off all his armor and some of his clothes and started checking on his body condition. Luckily for Ari, he didn't have any serious injuries on his body. There were only a few red scratches on some areas of his skin folds which were the effects of the heavy pressure from the armor to his body.
Unfortunately, Ari's armor was not as lucky as his body was. Although it was still intact and the shape was still appropriate, the chestplate of Ari's armor had a fairly severe dent in the center, while his helmet was slightly dented in the back of the head. It seemed that the dent was because Ari had fallen rolling backward before.
Ari checked the leather pouch inside his ring and took out a small hammer. With a little controlled force, Ari began to hit the dent on her chest plate from the inside, trying to restore it to its original shape.
Tang! Tang! Tang! Tang!
Ari repaired his chest plate and helmet for an hour until they finally looked quite normal. Of course, since Ari had no experience in carpentry and repair, except for repairing some parts of the house and farm tools, Ari could not repair his chestplate and helmet to their original condition. The results of Ari's work can only make his chest plate return in a non-dented condition, although there are still visible streaks that are a sign that the chest plate has just been repaired roughly. The same thing happened to his helmet, although to a lesser extent.
Ari put his armor back on, this time he also equipped his shoulder armor as an additional form of protection. Ari remember his battle with the rectangular creature that came out of the floor, with its strange flat body and happy-looking face. Ari compared the rectangular creature he defeated with the one he left behind.
"Other than their faces showing different expressions from each other, both are equally flat and made of stone."
That was the conclusion Ari could draw for now. Ari felt he needed to meet some similar creatures to be able to find out what they really were.
After finishing dressing, with his sword and shield at the ready in both hands, Ari started walking towards the exit of the dungeon. Ari remembered that his task was to hunt Orthis, and his last clue in the form of burning animal footprints did not lead to this dungeon. Ari's purpose for being in this dungeon was only out of curiosity.
Ari carefully walked towards the entrance of the dungeon, wary of rectangular creatures that could appear at any time from anywhere as long as Ari was in the hallway of this dungeon. Ari walked and continued to walk vigilantly until he finally reached the mouth of the cave covered with a magic membrane without encountering a single rectangular creature. Even at this moment, when Ari was sure that it was morning outside the dungeon, the atmosphere inside the dungeon was still dark and only lit by the torches in the hallway.
With confidence, Ari walked through the magic membrane at the mouth of the cave and exited the dungeon. Ari was then greeted by the sight of a dense forest and the morning sunlight that had just emerged from the east, peeking shyly behind the horizon as if afraid to face the day.
Ari looked around him and was satisfied that nothing had changed around him. Everything was still a dense forest, just as Ari remembered before entering the dungeon. The only difference Ari found was a burning footprint that seemed to be bigger than the one he had previously found. The size of this animal footprint was almost as big as Ari's own foot, maybe even a little bigger. The footprints seemed to walk into the dungeon where Ari had just exited a moment ago.
"How can a creature of this size just pass me by?
Is this the same creature I followed before?
How could a creature of this size just pass me by without me realizing it?"
Ari was having a dilemma at the moment. He didn't know whether the two tracks he found were from the same creature or not, but they looked so similar that Ari doubted his own knowledge of animal track recognition. The confused Ari finally decided to follow the biggest trail he found, because the bigger trail somehow looks more promising.
Fir with his decision, Ari begins to step back into the dungeon. After passing through the magic membrane once again, Ari reappeared in a dark dungeon with a dimly lit hallway in front of him. Ari looked at the dungeon floor in search of the burnt trail he saw outside the dungeon and managed to find it, although the burnt trail was not as clear as the burnt trail outside the dungeon.
Ari tried to follow where the trail led and found that the burning trail led to the right side of the dungeon. From there, the trail cut off only to reappear on the wall and then led up to the ceiling, where Ari could see another passage.
"Ah, so that's the reason why I didn't encounter this monster during my time in the dungeon."
Ari tried to follow where the footprints went, but unfortunately, he did not find the right foothold to use as a base for climbing. The walls of this dungeon were really neat and smooth without the slightest gap to insert feet or hands.
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"Hmm... Is that a monster-only path?"
Ari thought for a moment and finally accepted his theory that the passage at the top of the dungeon was a special passage for monsters entering the dungeon. Ari then looked at the passage he had entered yesterday and sighed resignedly.
"Haaahh... Alright. Then I have to enter through this passage."
Resigned to his choice, Ari mentally prepared himself to re-enter the passage and probably face another rectangular creature.
*****
Ari began to walk into the hallway. He walked at a fairly leisurely pace but his eyes and ears were always on alert, ready to spring into action at the sight or sound of anything suspicious.
Ari had been walking for about thirty minutes, passing the place where he last fought with the rectangular creature and finished it off. Ari just realized that he no longer saw the remains of the rectangular creature that should still be left on the floor of the hallway. But Ari didn't want to bother with that, because many strange and unusual things could happen in the dungeon.
Five minutes later, Ari again heard the cracking sound but this time, Ari felt a bad premonition when he heard the cracking sound.
crack! crack! Crack! CRAACK!
Ari heard a lot of cracking sounds from around her. Slowly, three pieces of wall stuck out from the hallway wall and showed their faces. Two of the three rectangular creatures that appeared displayed sad faces, while the third rectangular creature displayed a worried face.
Uwwwhuhuhuuuuu
Uwwwhuhuhuuuuu
Hrmmmmm
Ari immediately took his stance. His current position was not really good because he was surrounded from two directions. Ari's eyes vigilantly looked at the three city creatures in turn, monitoring their movements and when they would attack.
For a full minute, Ari watched the three city creatures that surrounded him, but none of them showed any sign of attacking. All the three did was cry and growl, seemingly indifferent to Ari's presence.
'Why aren't they attacking?
Ari could not understand why these three creatures showed no sign of attacking. The three didn't even show any sign that they were aware of Ari's presence, making Ari unconsciously soften his level of vigilance.
!!!
Ari, who had just relaxed his alert level, suddenly remembered the sad and worrying things in his life. Memories of the regretful days when he lost his brother, his sadness when he lost his parents, and his worry when he experienced his first failure in taking care of his livestock.
'What is this? Why am I suddenly remembering sad and worrying things?'
Ari, who was caught off guard by the sudden emergence of his memories, didn't realize that one of the rectangular creatures managed to approach him from behind and hit him with the edge of their body.
Bamm!!! Uaaagghh!!!
Ari fell forward, shock and confusion gracing his face. Meanwhile, the memories of his sad and worrying time suddenly became stronger, filling his mind and making him frantic.
'What? Why! My parents! My little brother!!! Aaaarrgghhh!!!'
Ari panicked and swung his sword and shield recklessly, trying to keep the rectangular creatures around him away at all costs. Unfortunately, the three rectangular creatures seemed to be deliberately keeping their distance, while amplifying the sound of their cries and growls.
UwwwhUUHUUHUHU!!!
UwwwhUUHUUHUHU!!!
HRRRMMMMMM!!!
Ari, who was drowning in sadness and worry, completely lost control of himself and his mind. Tears began to flow profusely down Ari's cheeks while his eyes were no longer focused as if Ari could see the pathetic figure in her mind standing in front of her.
Amid his confusion getting deeper and wilder, Ari saw a memory he did not recognize!
*****
A young man was sitting in a dark room, with a coffin in front of him. Inside the coffin lay a woman who was quite old, although not that much of a granny. The woman lay stiffly with a peaceful face, while the young man seemed to be crying even when his eyes showed strong determination.
The memory shifted, showing a middle-aged man wearing a thick bomber jacket standing in a dark corner of a muddy and damp alley. In the middle of the alley lay an old, bleeding man with a long knife stuck in his back right through the old man's heart. The middle-aged man then put his bloody hand into his jacket pocket while whispering to himself.
"The debt of life has been paid."
*****
Ari gasped in shock, his eyes opened wide and his consciousness recovered. He saw that the three rectangular creatures were still focused on crying and growling around him. The memory of what they were doing with the sound of their crying and growling made anger rise from within Ari.
"Bastard!!!"
With all his might, Ari swung his shield horizontally at the nearest rectangular creature that seemed surprised at Ari's resistance. The rectangular creature didn't have time to do anything before Ari's shield arrived and crushed it right in the middle.
PAK!!! BRAAAKKK!
UwwwhU!!! HUUU!!! UWWUUHHUUU!!!
The rectangular creature with a crying face was instantly shattered into pieces. The body fragments made from the wall and the stone face that was shattered into pieces began to cry wildly, clearly showing that the creature was in pain and dying.
Ari ignored the cries of the rectangular creature he had destroyed and focused on the other two rectangular creatures. Without stopping his momentum in the slightest, Ari swung his shield at the second rectangular creature with a pained face.
PAK!!! BRAAAKKK!
UwwwhU!!! WUUUHUUU!!! UWWUUHHUUU!!!
Just like before, the second rectangular creature also screamed crying as much as it could. The pain, dying, and destruction made the rectangular creature terrified even though the expression on the crushed stone face had not changed at all. Meanwhile, Ari turned around and lunged towards the third rectangular creature with a worried face. The creature seemed to be trying to escape while protecting itself by spinning quickly.
Ari didn't care how fast the rectangular creature was spinning, with all his might Ari slammed his shield in the opposite direction of the rectangular creature's spin, using its spinning speed as a weapon to destroy the rectangular creature.
BANGG!!! BRAAAKKK!
uggghhh!!!
The rectangular creature's body instantly exploded and shattered into small pieces of rock. Meanwhile, Ari also received a backlash for attacking against the direction of rotation. Ari's body was thrown and slammed into the opposite wall of the hallway quite hard, although Ari didn't seem affected much by the impact.
Ari looked at the debris and fragments of the three rectangular creatures that had now become still. There was no longer any sign of life on the rock fragments that had previously been a problem for Ari. Annoyed, Ari stomped and crushed all the rock fragments larger than the size of his fist, making sure the rectangular creatures were completely destroyed and finished without a trace of life left.
"I really hate this dungeon."
Ari then continued his journey further into the dungeon, his body still fresh and strong enough to fight even though his heart and mind were completely shaken.
*****
Ten minutes after Ari left the fragments of the rectangular creature he had destroyed, a red-irised eyeball appeared from the sky above the hallway. The eye stared intently at the fragments of the rectangular creature that were slowly breaking down into magic particles. The eyes then glanced in the direction where Ari had gone. The eyes narrowed slightly and then disappeared as if the eyes had never appeared at all in the hallway.