Chapter 36: Back to the Dungeon Dive

“Tier 3 Dungeon...? Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“We have Tobias with us. So don’t worry about it.”

“You’re expecting too much from me... But you think we can handle it, Jacques?”

“We should be fine, I think. Are you guys ready for it?”

“Hell yeah!”

“Clara?”

“Okay... If – if you guys say so...”

And just like that, their decision was set. This time, their Magical Dungeon was located quite far away. Around a few days of walking, or something like that.

But Tobias had recognized where it was. The path they took stopped by Meadowfield Town, and went on to a seemingly random direction for the untrained eye. But he knew this direction. This dense forest, filled with pine trees and small river streams, leading towards a mountain...

This was the way back to his village, wasn’t it?

The reason why this Magical Dungeon isn’t immediately reserved by other parties, despite being a Tier 3 Magical Dungeon (which were usually contested, because it wasn’t too dangerous while it still gave good rewards) is because it was literally in the middle of nowhere, quite far away from civilization.

Or, well... at least, what these city people considered as ‘civilization’. Tobias believed that villages and towns are civilizations of their own, too. Just... not as big, nor as advanced as cities, at least.

Then again, that was his sense of pride speaking. Because at the end of that day, he came from one of those villages, after all.

“You seem like you know the way well.” Jacques commented, as they passed by a small river, with calm, knee-deep waters. In their Leader’s hand, he held a walking stick which was a stick he picked up at some point.

Was it the ideal concept of the stick that Tobias used as a spear once? Unfortunately not. But a quick glance told him that it was a good, sturdy stick anyways.

Tobias shook his head to clear those thoughts.

“I do know the way well.” He finally replied back. He wiped his feet dry and unrolled his trousers, before he wore his fabric socks and slipped them back to his boots. Socks are amazing. “This is the way back to my home village.”

“Wait, why didn’t you tell us?” Bastille asked, giving a small grimace. It seemed like the edges of his trousers got wet, and Tobias thought that it would be uncomfortable. But the Sorcerer only gave a sigh at this, and wore his socks and boots. Then he seemed to realize that the boots covered his legs against the wet fabric of his lower trousers, so he let out a pleased hum.

“I don’t know where my village is on a map.” Tobias replied, with a shake of his head. “I did tell you it’s in the middle of nowhere. But now that we’re walking to our destination, I know where it is now.”

“Huh.” Bastille hummed, before a grin formed on his fame. “Well, Clara. You heard him, didn’t you?” He called out behind him, most likely referring to their Archer.

“W-what do you want from me?” Clara asked back, with narrowed eyes which were on the verge of being a hostile glare.

Fortunately, it seemed like her above knee-length green dress (or skirt, as he was told) didn’t need to be rolled up to traverse the knee-deep river. So she only wiped her feet, and wore her... really long, black-colored socks, which also happened to be somewhat translucent.

She must have bought that at some point while browsing the marketplace with Stella. And he thought that it looked good on her.

“His home village.” Bastille said, with a drawl to emphasize the last word. “Do I need to spell it out to you?”

Tobias didn’t get what he meant. But whatever Bastille meant, Clara somehow seemed to get it, and her face reddened, before glaring at the Sorcerer.

“S-shut up! I get it now!” She yelled – her voice much higher pitched than normal.

“What did he mean?” Tobias asked.

Archer and Sorcerer shared a look. Clara’s eyes were narrowed, while Bastille’s were amused. It was almost as if they were engaging in their own, silent discussion. But in the end, Clara raised her elbow and jabbed the air. Bastille flinched at the action, as he let out a sigh and a small nod of compliance.

... Yeah. How and why was everyone else so expressive to the point they could conduct silent messages with only their body language and expressions to go by?

“Don’t worry about it.” Bastille finally said, giving him a small pat on the shoulder. The Sorcerer passed him, taking swift steps and seemed to walk beside their Leader, who was about seven or so steps away.

Tobias idly glanced towards Clara, who only gave a pleased, subtly arrogant nod.

“A-anyways...” She coughed, and took to Tobias’ side. “What’s your Village like?”

Tobias hummed, thinking to himself. While he could simply describe it in one word... that would be boring, and he felt like that didn’t do anything justice. So he thought about it...

He looked up. He was greeted by the foliage of trees, with the sun filtering through them with rays of light. It was already early-summer, was it not? It’s almost been a year since Marcus died...

But no. Those thoughts were too complicated to think about right now, and completely derailed his train of thought. What he needed to think about was a good answer to Clara’s question. Idly glancing at her, she only stared at him with expectant eyes. So he sighed.

“It’s home.” He answered, and as expected, her eyes only seemed to demand more. “It’s, uh... Since it’s summer right now, you’ll see that it’s going to have some pretty golden fields – if they haven’t harvested those yet, at least.”

Running up and down those hills everyday definitely burned the memory into his mind, if nothing else.

“Hmm...” Clara hummed at his answer, before letting out a nod. “You came from a farming village, then?”

“Yeah.” He nodded. “How about you? I remember Jacques mentioning that you also came from some village somewhere. How was your village?”

“Mhm... well, it was a village which specialized in making wine, so you can see a lot of vineyards around and stuff.” She replied. Her eyes were somewhat glazed over, and she seemed to delve into her past memories. “Whenever it’s time to harvest the grapes, we would usually sneak in and steal a few bunches of them...”

“Just like what Jacques did, then.” He idly commented, and their leader stopped walking, and slowly turned around, as if he got caught red-handed.

... It seemed like Tobias might have said his words a bit too loudly to the point where it could be heard, even though they were roughly seven steps away.

“What?” Jacques retorted. “You’re my accomplice, you know?”

“All of us are accomplices here.” Bastille noted, and Jacques let out a nod of approval.

“So you should stop saying like it’s entirely my fault.” He continued, with a small hum of pride to himself.

“Not wrong, I guess.” Tobias shrugged, raising his hands in surrender. Alright, there was no arguing against that. He was also involved, after all. He was no better than them when it came to stealing grapes from a vineyard.

Clara giggled. That sound made them idly turn to her. Despite her eyes being the color of the abyss – a pure black which seemed to rival that of nothingness, happiness seemed to radiate from them like their own suns. And her lips were curved upwards, into a gentle smile.

“You look like you remembered something nice.” Bastille commented.

“Not at all.” She shook her head, and then gazed up towards the leaf-covered skies. “I’m just happy to be here. That’s all.”

Tobias was somehow happy at the fact that she was happy.

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***

Health: 900/900

Mana: 300/300

Vitality: 30

Endurance: 32

Strength: 31

Dexterity: 31

Intelligence: 11

Wisdom: 12

Magic: 10

Willpower: 21

Level: 24

Stocked Experience: 894

Level Up Cost: 1076

“Nothing really changed, huh?” Clara said, as she stared at the white panel in front of her. Aside from the small, almost negligible increase in Experience, nothing else really changed.

“I already told you that aside from my little scuffle with Leo last week, I haven’t really fought anything.” Tobias sighed. “And besides, who was it who decided to confine me to my bed for the past week?”

“You do realize that your ‘little scuffle’ with him reopened your stomach wound, which you ignored, which led to the Cleric needing to stitch your wound shut while she used her Healing Magic on you.” She turned to him and glared at him.

“I’m fine after a day or two of resting, though.” He winced at her glare. Was it because of his words? “... My bad. I really didn’t notice the pain that much, promise. I just thought that it felt weird that it was slightly aching.”

She let out a groan of annoyance. “I swear... You’re hanging out way too much with Bastille...”

“What about him, though?”

“You’re catching his stupidity, and his rudeness.”

“Don’t worry about it.” He said, waving it off. “This is simply me after I considered you guys as my friends. Remember when I said that I usually ignored the people back at home whenever they tried to invite me to play?”

“Yeah... I think it would have been better if Jacques didn’t invite you to party with us, then.” She pouted, and crossing her arms over her chest.

“Now, now, even if that was a joke, that kinda hurts me, you know?” He said, letting out a wry grin at her teasing words. Or not teasing words. He really wasn’t sure. But she did have a tendency to act like a child whenever she got annoyed.

And that was somehow adorable in its own, strange way.

“Hah... Really now?” She asked, and turned to face him with her narrowed, abyss-hued eyes. “You’re pretty tough on the outside, but inside you’re just a big softy, aren’t you?”

He shrugged. “When I’m hearing painful words from someone I’m friends with, and I know that they’re serious, then of course it’s gonna hurt.”

“I was just joking with you on that one.” She said. “You don’t have to sulk anymore.”

“The only one sulking in here is you.” He retorted back, and she gazed back at him blankly.

“Mmm...!” She pouted. “You really are hanging out too much with Bastille...!”

“Sorry, sorry.” He apologized, grinning as he did. “Would you rather prefer me to talk to you like you’re a princess, instead?”

“... Princess...?” She muttered under her breath, to the point where he didn’t catch any of it.

“What was that?”

“N-no. It’s nothing!” She spoke suddenly, and turned her face away. He winced at the volume and tone of her sudden voice.

“Anyways, there’s something I want to talk about.” Tobias turned to fully face her, and his expression hardened to one of focus. In turn, she flinched, before slowly turning around to face him as well.

“W-what is it...?” She stuttered, and her eyes seemed to have trouble locking gazes with his.

“Are you alright?” He asked. “You seem to get annoyed whenever I talk with other people. Not only that, but you don’t seem to focus sometimes. And, well, uh, I’ve heard from Bastille... but you’ve kinda been more violent when it comes to elbowing him...”

“T-that’s because he’s been bullying me a lot...” She meekly said.

“It is reaching the point where it’s no longer just teasing? I can always talk to him, if you want.”

“No, no, that’s alright! It’s just... uhm... It’s really hard to explain...”

“Mhm, got it.” He nodded. “I understand how complicated feelings are. But if you get them sorted out, you could always tell me. I’ll listen to you, just like how you listened to me that time.”

“...”

“Are you alright?”

“Mhm. I am... Thank you.” And with those words, she walked towards him, and shakily patted his shoulder. “Y-you should be ready when that time comes, alright?”

“Of course.” Tobias nodded. “That’s a promise.”

But if he had been paying more attention, then he would have noticed the way her face was contorted to one of heavy embarrassment, and disappointment towards herself.

***

And there it was. Just ahead of them was the ever infamous golden fields of wheat that Tobias fondly remembered them to be. It seemed like harvesting them was somewhat late this year, but that was good because it showed his friends the beauty of golden fields.

“Whoa... I think I’m getting blinded by the fields.” Jacques remarked, as he partially blocked his eyes by using his hands.

“You really weren’t joking when you said your village had some pretty golden fields.” Bastille commented idly, and flashed a thumbs up. “Good thing we made it before they cleared it out, then.”

“Anyways, Tobias.” Jacques called out. “You wanna go visit your family for a bit or are your circumstances... uncertain?” Tobias idly noted that when he said that, he glanced towards Clara.

She glanced back with a particularly complicated expression, before turning to him with an expectant expression once again.

“My relationship with my family is fine.” He answered, and then hummed. “But what about the Magical Dungeon...? Is it alright to just leave it alone for a few more hours?”

“It’s only been... three days or so.” Bastille replied, checking the map he brought with him. “Magical Dungeons of this Tier usually incubate and get ready to invade in about two weeks or so. We should be fine.”

“But isn’t it dangerous to let anymore monsters spawn within the dungeon?” Tobias asked once more.

Because with how Magical Dungeons functioned, it seemed like it spawned monsters the moment a person gets teleported inside. And as long as a person was inside the Magical Dungeon, it seemed like the monsters needed to hunt them down. But while it was happening, no more monsters could apparently spawn. Nobody was sure why that was the case, but it was too futile thinking about it.

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it.” Jacques waved his concerns off. “An hour or two is really all we need. And besides, we might be able to ask your family if they know exactly where the Magical Dungeon is. Pretty convenient that way, yeah?”

“Huh...” Tobias hummed. Then he turned towards Clara. “What do you think?”

“Yeah, Clara, what do you think?” Bastille echoed, and she only glared at him in turn.

“I-it’s fine either way. But if it’s possible... I’d like to meet them...”

“You heard her, Tobias.” Bastille nodded at her words, and gave her a thumbs up. The gesture only made Clara frown, and turn away quickly. “What will it be?”

Tobias only sighed. He really didn’t have a choice now, didn’t he? So he reluctantly walked towards the direction of the village path. “Fine, fine. Let’s go.”

“Alright!” Jacques raised a fist, and shook it with satisfaction.

“First impressions matter a lot. Got that, Clara?” Bastille said.

“I really don’t need your help...” She only murmured back dejectedly.

Tobias sighed again. He trusted his friends to not cause any disrespect, at least.

But he did not trust his family to keep his dignity intact after all of this...

***

A basket filled with crops and vegetables had been dropped. Tobias idly flinched when he saw a potato roll off the street, but that wasn’t quite the important thing right now. It was only by chance... pure chance, that they had met like this outside.

“T-Toby...?”

Because right in front of them was his older half-twin sister, Catherine.

“Hey there, Cath.” Tobias waved to her. “How have you been?”

And with those words, it was almost as if a magic spell binding her in place was lifted. Because she immediately ran up to him, and wrapped him in a tight, warm hug.

It seemed like the signature gesture of affection that the female side of his family decided on was the friendly yet passionate, innocent yet loving embrace, Tobias idly noted.

“I missed you!” She said, and he nodded. Then he lifted his hand, and began to pat her back. “I’m glad you’re still alive...!”

“Dear, oh dear.” Tobias grinned, the tone of his voice teasing. “You’re my dearest older sister and you’re clinging to me while you’re crying?”

“It’s – been too long since I last saw you. Please don’t tease me like so...”

“Alright, I was just kidding. I missed you too.”

They stayed like that for no longer than a minute, before she finally had the presence of mind to remove herself from Tobias. Her eyes were caramel, too shiny with tears, and reddened because of her crying. But she wiped them away, and gave him a smile, as if welcoming him back home.

Then her gaze flicked above his shoulder. Or more specifically, towards the people behind him.

“A-ah... Who are these people?”

“I am Jacques.” Of course, the Leader always began to introduce himself first whenever introductions were needed.

“I’m Clara. Pleased to meet you!” She continued, and curtsied towards his older sister.

It seemed like she really was taking that first impression thing advice seriously.

“And the person picking up the potatoes and cabbages is Bastille.” Jacques said, as he idly pointed towards said Sorcerer at the end of the street, who only seemed to glare at him for making him do that.

Tobias silently agreed that it was a great idea to make him do that. Who knew what Bastille would say or do. It would be a disaster, most definitely.

“These are my Party members.” Tobias finished, and then widened his eyes. He almost forgot...! “And this is Catherine. My older twin sister. Please treat her well.”

“Twin? How?” Bastille exclaimed from the background, but nobody seemed to pay attention to him.

“Hello, everyone. Pleased to meet you.” Catherine greeted, then moved to bow down elegantly. “I hope you’ll forgive my unsightly display earlier.”

“No, no, it’s quite alright.” Jacques raised his hands, to assure her that it was fine. “It’s only understandable because you haven’t seen Tobias in a long time.”

Tobias frowned. Three or so months wasn’t really that long. But then again... his training meant that he didn’t really quite see his family a lot, so maybe that was also a reason why she felt like it’s been a long time since?

Speaking of training... “By the way, Cath.” He called out. “Is old man Magnus still alive?”

“He’s not that old, you know.” Catherine replied, with a small frown. “But yeah, he’s still alive and doing fairly well.”

“Who’s Magnus?” Bastille asked, and in his hands, he held the basket filled with vegetables once more. With a respectful nod, he handed it towards his older sister, who only took it with a gracious bow.

“My mentor.” Tobias replied. And at the reactions of his friends, he only frowned. “We’re here to see my family – no more, no less. We need to go to my home, now.”

“But Toby, don’t you think Magnus might appreciate you coming around to check up on him?” Catherine asked.

“I think he’s only going to challenge me in a duel to see if I’ve been keeping my skills sharp...” Tobias groaned.

“Come on, Tobias, I think you should see your mentor too.” Jacques said. It would be more convincing if the guy wasn’t blatantly excited and seemingly ready to learn from him or challenge him a duel as well!

“Yeah, Toby. You should learn to respect your mentor.” Bastille has the right to remain silent. He always has the right to remain silent. So why the hell can’t he be silent?

Clara said nothing. She’s been surprisingly quiet and docile ever since... yesterday? Or was it ever since their conversation in the Abyss? Well, it was fine. That only meant that she was sorting her thoughts out, right?

“Alright, it’s been settled then.” Catherine spoke up, as she clapped to catch everyone’s attention. “Follow me and let’s go back home, then.”

Tobias blinked. Since when did they put Catherine in charge...?

He only focused on his thoughts for a few seconds, and this is what already happened the moment he returned back to reality.

“Alright! Thanks Tobias’ Big Sister!”

“Praise be to you, Elder Sister!”

But he only shrugged. Catherine really was the elder sister for a reason. She was even (technically) born a day ahead of him, for a reason after all.

...

Later on, Tobias would partially regret agreeing to take them to his family. But he did note that Bastille went along well with his father and younger brother, Pierre and Andre respectively.

Clara went along well with Erise, as well as Catherine herself, while Jacques...?

He went along well with literally everyone. And somehow, especially with his mother. Seriously – that guy’s charisma was through the roof.

It was nice to see that everyone was getting along well, though.