ISMUND

I couldn’t sleep. It was too bright. Sure, it was bright in the dungeon, but I was too tired for the light to keep me from sleeping. Now I had just enough energy that I couldn’t fall asleep, but I wanted to badly.

Even if it were dark outside, I would still have trouble. Drifa was quietly snoring and it was annoying me. I never had a moment of silence.

Being a light sleeper is good in a dungeon, not outside of one.

I let out a breath.

At least we made ground.

I tried to just lay down for a while, doing nothing. I had heard somewhere that resting can still be helpful even if you’re not sleeping. I tried to do that for a while, but I was getting bored. The trait [Time Numb] trait should’ve helped. It probably did, I just had nothing to do.

Better fix that.

Taking out a large branch I cut off a large piece and started carving it, careful to make every sliver of wood a toothpick. I had taken the knife back from Drifa earlier.

Waste not, want not.

Once the sun at about noon, I stopped. I had been carving the boss we fought. Making a collection of them like trophies could be interesting. I could use them as a sort of trophy. I wasn’t willing to hold onto pieces of their corpse if it meant I couldn’t get the supplies I needed. I wasn’t after glory or anything anyway.

I packed up my tent and headed to Drifa.

I can’t believe she’s still asleep.

She was a mess, it just looked like she layed down and passed out once I left…

She probably did.

I shook my head and clapped my hands.

“Wake up!”

She did not wake up.

I forgot.

I pushed her shoulder with my boot. Then she woke up.

Finally, took you long enough.

“Wha-what is it?” She blinked hard against the sun and wiped some partially frozen drool off of her face with her sleeve before squinting.

She held up a finger, “Hold on…”

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Her pupils sharpened into small dots and seemed unfocused as she held her bandana. After a moment of pause, she gave me a thumbs-up.

I let out a sigh from her antics.

“We’re leaving.”

She stood up messily, now very awake.

“Already!”

“It’s noon.”

I spun away from her on my heel and started walking again. After a moment of pause, I heard crunching footsteps run up to me.

“Are we going to town?”

Not the same one, but it’s still a town.

I started walking faster and a half-hearted nod.

“How long will we stay there?”

Here it comes.

“Two-ish weeks. Same as last time.”

She started again, “Wha-“, only for me to cut her short with a sharp look. She looked down red-faced. Sleep deprivation wasn’t helping my patience.

Finally, some quiet.

We winded through the naked, frozen trees ahead of us for a while. I grabbed some more Jerky to eat once or twice. I’d need at least some if I was going to heal up. It was very painful and restricted my movement. It didn’t help that my backpack was pushing on it all day. It was making it worse from what little I could tell. I didn’t have enough food to make it back to the town while eating full meals. Not by a long shot.

Coconuts. Those could help. I think I have…

I rummaged through my System menu until I found them in my inventory.

…Twenty. I have twenty of them. By themselves, it could last us both two and a half days of full meals. I haven’t eaten one before, but I’ve heard they’re pretty good.

We either needed to find more food on the way back to the town or not eat for a couple of days by the looks of it. I’d be fine with not eating. Drifa, she’s almost definitely not.

Considering the fact that she didn’t know how long it took us to get to the village, she’ll probably lose track of time going back to the village as well. So, she’ll probably panic if we don’t eat food for a while, even if I tell her that it’s fine. She’s not the calmest individual.

It could go pretty bad. It’d be exhausting if she was complaining all day. That would be unbearable.

I grimaced, unsure what I should do.

I could waste time and maybe find some food in the forest. The other option is getting into the village sooner and being hungry.

I thought over it for a while.

There’s a reason people are sacrificing things to dungeons. The available resources are rather scarce. Trees just existing here are impressive. I think I’ve seen the occasional wolf track, but I have a feeling that they just hunt the people who go off into the woods.

As I made up my mind we continued walking though the dense trees. It was eerily silent, but it was a nice break from all the other noises around.

…I think there’s a third option. I can’t believe I didn’t think of this earlier.

I could give portions that are significantly smaller. Drifa might end up worried from it, but that’s better than her freaking out over having no food in a day. She would only complain a little that way.

I nodded to myself and changed my plan.

Sounds good. It’s not ideal, but it’s better for certain.

Drifa interrupted any further thoughts.

“Whats the point of defeating a dungeon? It didn’t go away. We want them to go away right?”

My eyes thinned with my mouth. I didn’t think this was going to end well.

“Defeating them might get rid of the dungeon give enough time. We’d just need to make it lose more energy than it gets by doing a bunch of perfect dungeon dives. If The System is running low on the energy it uses to keep all these monsters from leaving the dungeon, we should give it more energy by defeating them.”

Her voice sounded confused, “The System says that no dungeons have ever been removed. How do you know that that’ll work?”

“It’s the theory from when I was younger.”

I don’t know what the current theory is… I have to catch up. I’d rather Drifa doesn’t know that.

“How young?” She squinted at me unsatisfied.

Nope, I’m not giving you more material for questions.

I gave her a hard look. She shut it, but only for a bit.

“It sounded like you were fighting to get rid of the dungeons before, but now that doesn’t make sense. You couldn’t clear a dungeon perfectly over and over for who knows how long with one person. You’d need a lot of people and you’d need them to stop sacrificing to them. And it doesn’t sound like we’re repeating the same dungeon over and over.”

If I give her the full answer, that just opens more questions. I’ll give her a piece of it.

“Power.”

That should work. Not a full lie, doesn’t invite many questions. And, oh, never mind.

Drifa looked at me with a concerned look with ill-disguised disgust.

“Is the power for some sort of goal? You’d want to use it for something at least right? Not just power by itself.”

Well, you’re right. If I tell you that I want to get rid of The Five, chances are you’ll talk about it to other people. People don’t really like it when somebody wants to kill the founders of something. Especially if it’s their whole magic thing they love so much. The butcher seemed uncomfortable with dealing with a stupid rabbit’s corpse, who knows what they’d think of what I’m doing? I’m not compromising my goal to make her happier.

I ended the conversation.

“Focus on walking.”

She went silent this time. We kept walking until the moon was high in the sky. Dria, once again, asked if she could try using both bandanas at once. It was a horrible idea. I didn’t want to risk damaging either of them, and I was currently using mine to see in the dark. Which, I must say, is quite important.

Eventually, I set camp. It was still dark out this time and I was tired enough to get some actual sleep. There wasn’t light, so it was good enough despite the light snoring.

Maybe it was just the light…