Chapter 5: Isn’t This Place a...

Dust groaned and rubbed his forehead.

Right now, he was laying on a hard surface that felt like stone. His clothes were wet and his body felt cold as the freezing underground air blew across his body. He tried to recall what happened after Lilith kicked him into the ravine.

‘Lilith… you damn traitor!’ Dust accused her of treachery in his mind and remembered how after falling into the ravine, he hit the surface of the water with a loud splash and felt his consciousness almost slip.

He struggled and broke the surface of the water that was flowing like a raging river and sucked in a deep breath, only to sink back down into the currents below.

He did this a couple times, barely keeping himself from drowning. Suddenly, the water disappeared, sending Dust flying forwards. In that short moment, Dust looked back and saw that the water actually dropped downwards, into a massive waterfall that continued to flow down the abyss…

The abyss he was also falling down into.

Dust sucked in a mouthful of air and screamed at the top of his lungs, falling down and crashing into the underground lake below. Dust’s recollection ended there.

“I probably lost consciousness upon hitting this lake… Damn, I don’t know whether I should call myself lucky or not…” Dust murmured to no one in particular and stood up. Looking around, he saw that this place wasn’t completely devoid of light.

Up on the ceiling, beautiful blue crystals protruded out from the chasm’s roof, bathing the area in a dim blue light. On the ground, numerous mushrooms grew between rocks and within tight spaces, similarly glowing, but with a green coloration.

Dust stared with his mouth hanging open, it was as if this place was another world. Like it only existed to be admired by whoever managed to reach it.

‘Wait… where’s Lilith?' Dust snapped out of his reverie and frantically looked around. He wasn’t sure if she jumped or not, but he trusted that she wouldn’t kick him down here and leave by herself.

Lilith was nowhere in sight, Dust jogged along the lake’s shore, looking for her. Finally, he spotted her lying down unconscious a few dozen meters away from his original location.

He walked towards her, intending to wake her up when he saw something that left him dumbstruck. The cloak she usually wore around her shoulders was now gone, probably swept away by the current after she jumped in after him.

Her clothes were wet and clung suggestively to her body, fully accentuating her curvaceous figure even through her leather armor. She continuously let out small breaths her chest rising up and down, the blue light from above making the sight in front of Dust even better.

Dust didn’t stare for long though, he regained his composure and checked her for injuries. Seeing nothing, Dust sighed in relief and picked her up. The cave was cold and he found himself shivering, leaving Lilith in the water would only lead to disaster.

He brought her to a small area in the chasm, this place was surrounded by boulders that reduced the effect of the cavern’s occasional cold breezes. He retrieved his traveling blanket from his enchanted bag that luckily stayed with him even after that fall.

The bag cost Dust around twenty silvers, he lamented about that fact as he took off her armor and draped his still-dry blanket over Lilith’s body. It was a good investment though, as it was only the size of three fists put together in length and two fists in width and could easily be secured to a  leather strap on his back.

Dust brought out a lamp and mana stone from his bag and inserted the small mana stone into a slot within the lamp’s bottom compartment. Immediately, the lamp was set alight and provided a small amount of heat.

‘This’ll have to do…’ Dust was nowhere near daring enough to take off Lilith’s wet clothes to make her feel the cold less, so the lamp he had prepared was the closest alternative he could think of as there was no firewood to be found anywhere.

From his bag that had a storage space of half a meter by half a meter, Dust brought out a change of clothes and changed out of his still-dripping garments. He set his wet clothes on a boulder nearby and waited for Lilith to wake up.

He raised an eyebrow in amusement, remembering the time when Lilith did the same for him after he passed out from getting kicked in the chest by a massive boar. Sadly, the fire was in the form of a lamp and he didn’t have fish. Otherwise, this’d be perfect.

As Dust was musing about how this turned out, Lilith’s eyelids slowly opened. She blinked and looked at Dust, who was leaning against a boulder near what looked like a lamp.

She felt a blanket draped over her and shivered, this caused her to snuggle deeper into the blanket. Dust, who saw this happen, laughed at her and was hatefully glanced at by Lilith.

Lilith stayed inside the blanket for a few more minutes before she stood up, she looked to the side and saw her leather armor. Suddenly a realization dawned upon her as she looked down on her clothes that still somewhat clung to her body.

She tensed up, gave Dust a cold look and spoke, “…What did you do?”

Dust took a moment to process her meaning and froze upon realizing what she meant.

“N-Nothing! Absolutely nothing! You think I’m some sort of pervert!?” Dust denied her claims with vehemence, shaking his head violently.

Lilith narrowed her eyes and looked at him like a guilty criminal while covering her chest with her arms, “…I don’t know why, but that makes it even harder to believe…”

Color drained from Dust’s face as he quickly said, “What? Why!? That look hurts, you know. Please don’t look at me like an animal. Hey, why do you look so violated? Seriously! I didn’t do anything!”

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Lilith’s eyes continued to accuse him as she brought out a change of clothes from her bag. She gave him a cold glare and said, “…I’m going to change my clothes, don’t even think about peeking or I’m going to…”

Dust interrupted before she finished, “I won’t! Jeez, stop looking at me like that…” to this, Lilith still looked unconvinced, she gave out a cold “Hmph,” and left, bringing the change of clothes she took out with her.

To this, Dust sighed and helplessly leaned back on his boulder, resting his eyes on the ceiling filled with glowing crystals above.

A few minutes later, Lilith came back wearing a dark brown coat with some blue lining that reached her knees over a simple blue long-sleeve that looked like it was made from linen. She sat down opposite of Dust and  brought out a Balilaise Fruit, tearing it in half and eating the sweet insides contentedly.

 Dust looked at her and said, “…Any idea where we are?”

Lilith shook her head distractedly and brought out another Balilaise Fruit, devouring it like she did the last one.

Dust looked around awkwardly before speaking, “I’m going to look around for a bit, there has to be an exit to this place…” Saying this, he stood up and walked off, earning a glance from Lilith who continued to bring out and eat even more of the fruits.

He looked around and Dust examined the cavern walls around the area, looking for anything that looked like an exit. He looked behind large boulders and picked the glowing green mushrooms, storing them in his enchanted bag.

Dust traced his steps back to the portion of the shore he washed up in and observed the lake. He scooped up some water from the lake and found that it was surprisingly refreshing. Opening his bag, he brought out his container of water that was now half empty and dumped its contents on the side, replacing it with the water from the underground lake.                 

He stored the container in his bag and scooped up some more water from the lake, drinking it and letting out a refreshed breath. Dust stepped away from the lake, and continued to walk along the shore until he noticed an opening in the wall.

It was a large entrance. It was in the form of a massive cave entrance and the inside was completely dark, with the light from the crystals above the lake only slightly lighting up the entrance, it looked intimidating and made Dust feel a shiver run up his spine. He had a slight fear of dark places since childhood and it had followed him up until now, at the tender age of sixteen.

Dust stared at it and contemplated going inside, before he felt a light tap on his shoulder. He was startled and jumped back in fright, letting out a cry and unsheathing his sword. He looked at that direction with a serious glare.

Staring back at him was Lilith, looking at him with a slight, mocking smile. She had her leather armor over her coat and held Dust’s lamp in her hands.

Dust coughed and sheathed his sword, trying to pretend like nothing happened. Lilith to his side gave him an amused glance and stared at the entrance. She furrowed her brows upon examining it for a moment and wordlessly entered, her steps echoed out and produced an eerie, desolate sound within the darkness that was dimly lit up by Dust’s lamp.

Lilith looked back at Dust and motioned for him to follow her. He had a confused look on his face, but decided to do as she said. As he followed her into the darkness, Dust saw signs of light a fair distance away.

As they approached, Dust noticed that the light was coming from eerie blue veins in the walls of the cavern. These veins occasionally pulsed, sending out a brief flash of blue light before dying down.

Dust leaned forwards and put his ears beside the veins, where he heard a slight humming sound. There was a constant vibration that came from the blue veins and upon seeing this, Lilith frowned while Dust showed a creeped out expression.

She looked at Dust and said, “…Take out your sword and get ready,” as she said this, she reached out to her hand and pulled off a grey metal ring. Dust looked at her in confusion and spoke, “What? Why?”

Lilith glanced at him with a serious expression as they walked on and said, “If my suspicions are correct, then this place is a…”

Her voice trailed off as we reached the end of the passage. Dust didn’t notice it before, but the originally wide entrance had narrowed considerably and the appearance of the blue veins in the side of the walls had gradually turned from blue, to purple and now…

It was red.

Lilith had a grim look on her face, her face displayed a frown and her fists were clenched, her body was tensed up and looked like it was ready to spring into action.

She looked at Dust one last time before she said, “…Dust, I think we’re in a dungeon.”

Chapter End.

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Author’s Note:

                Here's an early release! Please tell me your thoughts on the way I wrote this chapter. Sadly, there's a chance that I won't be able to post a chapter tomorrow as I have somewhere to go, but look forward to the next chapter that'll come out the day after! This chapter didn’t have much action, but you can expect the next one to have a lot of fight scenes and badass battles. This encounter will push Dust to his limits and expose a few of Lilith’s weaknesses, and hopefully drive them towards becoming stronger.

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