I’m not exactly sure what the two of them are talking about, but Jasper’s clearly amongst friends given her willingness to go along with who I see as complete strangers. So, I’m not going to be that one friend who has attachment issues and gets in the way of anything and everything, yeah? Let those two work it out, I’ve got no business with them. Meanwhile…

I guess I’m good to just walk around? Maybe? All of these monster-npcs aren’t exactly hostile, so it’s a little odd for me to be standing around doing nothing…

But everybody’s staring at me… Huh, well, best not to be intimidated by the probably twice my level NPCs all over the place.

…

Alrighty this has officially reached awkwardness!

Snapping my fingers and putting on my best filtered smile, I insist upon myself and repeat; “So, anybody mind showing me around?”

I’d just walk around and look, but given the apparent illegality of Wild Hunt’ers I’m not sure how well they’d all take to a complete stranger rifling about. I’m also fairly certain they’re all, at a bare minimum related to the archetype, because Screech is still absolutely flabbergasted.

“Koth, was it?”

“Ah, yes, and you were…?” I ask, turning to the chirpetrator, their eensy teensy form almost evading my gaze for a moment as I scan the floor.

I reiterate; they are a funny little thing, about as small as the palm of my hand. And while I did say my first impression was that they were a chameleon of sorts, if anything, I’d say they’re closer to a munchkin? A munchkin as in a really small dog or cat, not a literal munchkin. The main contributor to my former opinion would be… their really bug-eyed eyes.

“Arkiel %*1-Mial. You were asking *(& a guide?”

The gap isn’t really that difficult to fill in, just getting the parts of the sentence that I understand fills in the blanks pretty succinctly.

“...Twould be appreciated, ja.”

The little thing tilts its head at me confusedly, likely at the sudden accent, but nods afterwards either way.

“That can be ^&@%$!)^ without issue. Being $%@&%@(*$ guest, it would be neglectful to not provide you with some @*$& of tour.”

…Should I just put another level into [Communication]...? No, no… not yet. It’s bearable, no issue, no issue at all. Totally definitely absolutely certainly not at all annoying. It’s better than getting the general intention of a monster at the least. That whole shabang was starting to get rather annoying with every monster that wasn’t Jasper… Twas probably just bearable until now because tamed monsters have a more firm link. Even without words, I was still getting a clear picture from Jasper simply mumbling, but with all these other monsters, I barely get the vague outline of a thought.

Or, well, got, now I’m getting words! Or, well… half of them.

Whatever, no more points wasted on this completely non-essential combat skill. If it ever becomes a point of interest for me in that it would help with getting a good summon? Alright, THEN I put points into it. But right now? EHHH-ERRR none of that!

Just gonna have to grin and bear it ‘suppose!

“That would be lovely. Please, lead the way.”

Even with the curious glances still being thrown my way, the other monsters all part and give me the way of passage. Well, technically they give my guide Arkiel-something-MIal a clear way through, but I’m following after him so it counts!

“So, what’s there to see?”

“To be honest, not %*( much. Everything down here is mostly the bare #*%&*!)*&^(! that are required for our kind.”

“Mhm…”

I’d agree with their assessment from an outsider's perspective at least. I know I called this place something along the lines of a “village” at a first glance, but it’s really more of a camp, if anything. There’s only a few houses, which, albeit aren’t tents, but only a few. And as we walk for these few seconds, that fact becomes increasingly clear in the same amount of time.

However!

“But… the heck is that?”

Carved out into the wall of the cave, no-sorry, that’s an understatement, EXCAVATED into the wall of the cave, is a massive opening leading into a hall of smooth stone, a tunnel that leads unbelievably far into the otherwise unblemished walls surrounding this pocket of the cave. I can just make out what seems to be the end of it, a soft purple glow bleeding outwards, contrasting against the ever-present blue of this entire dungeon.

“Ah. The only real point of $(%#$&^% I’d imagine.”

“The only point of interest?” I ask two questions in one, but I believe they only picked up on the first of those two.

“Indeed. Not much else of note here in Underflow.”

But in doing so, answers both at once. The word was INDEED interest, I’m not slow let’s go!!!

Anyways… that’s all there is, then?

Screech certainly seems interested at the least, her entire body is leaning towards the hall, nearly threatening to lean herself right off of my shoulder. I’m sure to any outsider without the inside scoop, she’d look like a very diligent bodyguard right now, scanning the place for any potential threats…

Yeah right, what a nerd they’d be to think that! Just as much as Screech I’d imagine. Well… speaking of her.

“I did promise you a nice day, didn’t I?”

“...”

“Screech?”

“...”

So, this was how she found whatever that item was then? If she lasers in on magic this heavily I suppose she’d find just about anything in whatever her range is.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“Huh-whuh-guh-wuzzat?”

“Do you want to go cuh~loser to the super magic super duper power flame of Wild Hunting?”

“...”

I almost raise a hand to snap in her face, but she starts fervently nodding without a word a moment later.

“So… could we see it?”

“No reason you couldn’t.” The little thing nods affirmatively, taking a turn to the side as we wind around one of the homes.

Y’know, while I’m at it, might as well give a little description of the about half a dozen houses, right? Each of them are nearly identical, about… ten meters tall each, tops? Yup, just gave each one in view a quick once over, each of them seem to be about yae high. No windows, and they’re all made of some sort of stone.

The stone in question being a shade of blurple, if you will? And they’re all very square. There’s really not much of an eye for detail here, and if I didn’t know any better, I’d say these things weren’t even made by humans!

Oh yeah.

Well, can’t blame all of these goobers for that. Now, let’s see what the best they have to offer is! Just a straight shot from here to this big ‘ol hall… it wouldn’t happen to be called the hunter’s hall, would it? You know what, either way that sounds about right, so that’s just what I’m gonna call it. Cool? Cool.

“So… what’s the story with this place?” I ask, waving a hand around the lip of the entrance-

Whap

A wing smacks my hand, and for a moment I believe it to be Screech's, but the perpetrator reveals itself to me a moment later when I bother to look in its general direction. And it is, in fact, an entirely different bird! Similar in size to Screech, but instead of having brown and white feathers like yours truly, they instead bear a very tropical-looking mix of red and blue.

Either way, they don’t stick around long enough to either apologize or be apologized to, and instead just keep flying further into the hall despite the minor disturbance on their flight path. Leading my eyes down a winding road, consisting of a great many things.

I didn’t really take too close of a look prior, but this place is a little… weird. There’s no real rhyme, or, y’know reason to any of this. It’s a hoj-poj of different design and furniture, some parts of the floor are cold stone, others are thickly carpeted, there are tables strewn about, protrusions from the walls and platforms hanging down from the ceiling. Cracks in the walls-or more accurately, what seem to be small tunnels in the walls… all for it to end at the roaring purple flame at the end of the hall.

Even without Screech’s magic perception, I can still feel something off about that thing, so when I spare a glance at her, and find her once more nearly falling off of me, this time literally drooling, I’m not all that surprised.

“Careful there.” I huff and give her a little nudge back, but she ends up immediately tilting forward a moment afterwards all the same.

…Whatevs, now, what was that other bird doing? Right, right… their path ends with them landing gently on one of those aforementioned protrustions, clearly a perch of sorts… likely meant for them and their ilk. Now that I think about it, that does make sense, no? I’ve seen vaguely humanoid monsters, tiny monsters, birds of prey and bats of… bats. Lizards that’d probably appreciate the heat provided from the ever present flame further down the hall, soft floors for whomever walks on all fours… they’ve kind of got it made, actually…

There’re also some other paths closer to the flame, but there are actually bends there presumably leading to other rooms, so I can’t see everything quite yet.

“What was that?” Arkiel asks, snapping me out of my contemplation.

Oh yeah… I did ask him a question, didn’t I?

“This hall? What’s it, errrr, all about? Why was it made, you could say?”

“Ah. A relatively simple question to $*%(!@, actually. I’m sure you $*!($&%#, but our attempts to create “homes” didn’t exactly turn out too well. Our new $*!(% also didn’t exactly pair well with a more enclosed location. After a few days, the issue $*^%*! rather forced, and a meeting of sorts was held.”

Alright… missed a little bit there, no biggie.

“I’m sorry, your what now didn't pair well?”

They pause for a moment, I assume attempting to figure out what I mean by that.

“New forms? It was rather ^&%%*#@(! to adapt at first. Now… where was I? The matter of safe housing for the $*!(*)(!# at large was a serious issue. So, instead of attempting to stick to our prior *$!(% inclination, we came up with a new idea.”

“...Uh huh. But, the hall-oh, wait, sorry hold that thought.”

“Jasper.”

Immediately, her head turns in my direction, drawn away from the kobold sitting at a table in front of her. In front of her, because she’s lying on a bed of sorts? A… cat bed. Uh… good for her, I guess.

“Enjoying your chat?”

“Hm.”

She almost seems to snort as I ask the question, her tail slowly swaying side to side as her body shifts with a great huff.

“No?”

“Hmhmhmhm…”

“You.”

That same crisp, crystal clear voice pierces through the hall, and for once it goes silent. It hasn’t been silent, just for the record. Like a constant white noise, quiet chirps, krrs, purrs, and various assorted sounds have suffused the place ever since I even stepped foot near it. But at the clear annunciation of the Kobold, the constant hum fades away, if only for a moment.

As her tail swishes forth once again, I can almost feel Jasper laughing at me, from her ivory throne. And whilst she certainly didn’t actually say it in the common dialect of using your words, I can feel in my bones what she says to me in this moment.

“Have fun.”