“Well, it’s not like I can stop you even if I’m worried for you. Just remember that if you don’t come back, you’ll leave behind a very lonely bartender.”

Adrest laughed at the threat, “We could never do that to you Rose, just wait a few days for the good news. Who knows, maybe a certain inn-keeper will get a huge tip for her worries after some brave explorers hit it big.”

Rose just pouted in response, “The best tip you all could give me is coming back safe and sound."

“I can’t speak for Rin, but the three of us will be coming back here until you're tired of us. This is just a short trip and we'll be back before you realize.” Adrest reassured Rose, with Belle and Alissa nodding in agreement.

Rin spoke up, “I’ll come over as much as I can. I love how free I feel here, plus I’ve made my first real friends.”

Though she became quieter as she spoke, everyone present could still hear Rin’s heartfelt words.

Going to sleep early in preparation for another busy day, Adrest woke up at the crack of dawn as promised. He had a much easier time today getting the other two up and around, Belle helping to drag Big sis Ali up and out of bed.

After a quick meal and a round of hugs from the still worried Rose, they headed out to buy supplies. There were many stops to make, Alissa and Rin seemed to know exactly what was needed and first bought rations to last them a week, a large handful of water skins to fill later, miscellaneous camping gear, they thought of it all.

Adrest was just thankful he didn’t have to carry the hundreds of pounds of supplies as he watched it disappear in the storage devices of Alissa and Rin. They had just made their last stop and were ready for an adventure.

It was an uneventful walk back to the Mantula lair, just some small fry that Belle enthusiastically cleared for them. Once again in front of the dark entrance Rin took a breath and seriously looked to the group.

“I just want to ask again, are you all really comfortable going into a dungeon with me? As much as I like to brag, it’s a real possibility that we all die without knowing how. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I got any of you hurt or killed.”

The family waved off the concern, Alissa once again assuring her, “I promise we’ll be fine. We can all take care of ourselves to an extent, and I have a few surprises ready to go if need be. Trust us Rin.”

Rin smiled brilliantly at the girl, feeling a sense of safety at the young purple haired demi-human’s words.

“Then I’ll lead the way.”

Rin walked into the dark cave, and as Adrest followed he was very thankful for the cold weather. The remains of yesterday’s battle was still splattered everywhere, now frozen where it’d landed. They had to walk for a quarter of an hour before getting to where Rin’s battle had taken place. There were large chucks and cuts of stone taken out of the walls and floor showing the story of a devastating fight.

Beyond the destruction on the far half of the circular room was four large paths leading into the dark. As far as their magic tools could light, each path looked identical with no obvious traps.

Rin looked at the group, “Anyone have a favorite? If not, my intuition is usually right.”

Adrest looked incredulous, “And how much is “Usually”?”

“Uhh… 8/10 times maybe?”

Adrest shrugged, not expecting an actual answer and looked at the other two party members.

Belle just looked to Alissa who shrugged, not giving any hint she knew where to go. With that, they went with Rin's choice, leading down the first one on their left. The path was large enough that if the party wanted to they could walk side by side and still not fill half the space, and just as tall.

They casually walked with the darkness engulfing them to the front and back, Adrest, Belle, and Alissa were feeling pretty relaxed, their races all had excellent night vision so this environment suited them fine. If the dark bothered Rin, she didn’t let it show as she walked as casually as the others while scanning the trail ahead for threats.

No one talked much on the walk, just because they could see a hundred meters or so into didn’t mean things further up couldn’t hear them. Sounds echoed loudly due to the bare rock floors and round shape of the tunnels. The only thing to mark their passing were muted footsteps tapping on rock.

The march continued for nearly two hours before they found the first trap. Rin had stopped a few paces behind it and had Belle come over as she knew it was her first time in a dungeon, Adrest came over as well to see.

“Its hard to notice, but it you look closely, there’s a thin outline here.” Rin pointed to a hair thin outline of an oval-ish shape. If it had just been Adrest, he wasn’t sure he would have caught it.

“When you find traps like this take a look around, it’s never just one.”

Doing as their new teacher instructed, Adrest and Belle carefully inspected the walls around them and the path ahead. As promised, in just a few minutes Adrest Had spotted several more ahead.

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They carefully maneuvered around the landmines and made it to the end of this hall, sharply turning ninety degrees to a new direction. It was quiet and Adrest was curious why there’s been no more traps yet when a yellow light suddenly shine from above Rin in the lead.

There has been a magic circle hidden under the years of dust built up on the ceiling, now slowly a dark yellow and pulsing. The same instant the light went off, Rin jumped back and put from under it, drawing her weapons.

They were prepared for anything, from the walls collapsing on them, to poison spikes jutting out from the walls, but the circle simply flashed silently in the low light.

Alissa took a second to study the circle and the same time she spoke, Rin put down her weapons appearing to came to the same conclusion.

“There’s nothing to worry about right now, it’s just an alert magic, but be ready for an ambush. Something knows we’re here now.” Alissa took out her new favorite toys, the large Bowie knives with oversized hand guards and took her place at the back of the group. Anything that tried to sneak up on them would be in for a nasty surprise.

It was miles and miles of twisting and turning tunnels. Adrest got a chill when he noticed that sporadically spaced through the cave system were holes just too small for a human to comfortably walk through, though they hadn’t seen whatever used them yet.

After hours of walking, besides the occasional trap like collapsing floors, more pressure plates, and a particularly mean-spirited fire spell that shot at Rin just as she turned a corner, whose fast swords were the only thing that kept her hair safe and only a slightly singed.

The change happens fast however, they were walking through the underground maze, when in front and behind the party, the walls collapsed revealing large passageways that a hoard of slimy oversized worm monsters were squirming out of. Rin clicked her tongue in disgust at the pink waves of wriggling teeth coming from both directions.

“Why!? Why are there only gross monsters here!? Ugh, Can you three handle the back wave for a bit while I clear out the ones in the front?”

“Yeah.” “Yep!” “No problem.”

Adrest, Belle, and Alissa answered with no hesitation, ready to stretch after just walking and being on guard for hours on end. Alissa was the first to meet the wave, acrobatically jumping, weaving, and sidestepping both through and on the wave. She looked like a human shaped blender as anything that even grazed her blades were minced to shreds.

Behind was Adrest who caught most of what Alissa let through with his own frantic dance of dodging and jumping to not be overrun. His sword was going through droves of the worms with no resistance and a small smile was on his lips, happy to fight anything other than the spiders that’s been at the door to this place.

Lastly, staying near where they’d been standing a few moments ago was Belle. The albino rabbit girl’s red eyes shone menacingly in the dark as she hopped around the monsters swiftly using her short swords to pick out the last of the Worms that Adrest wasn’t able to stop. Though only a few at a time, the maneuvering was impressive, Belle’s body twisting and contorting in ways that shouldn’t be possible, swinging from angles that should’ve been outside her range.

As Belle excelled far beyond the norm in both nature and body magic, she could abuse her body and take it to new heights in combat. It was something she only learned in the last month or so as she needed a firm grasp on the basics to keep her overcharged body under control and not do more damage than she could heal.

It had been a very painful few weeks for Belle as she learned this, bones cracked from excess force, joints popping out of sockets, skin and muscle bursting. Adrest had been on the verge of asking Alissa to go a little slower, feeling sorry for the poor girl, but Belle was the one who insisted on continuing, her near death experience apparently firming her resolve to become stronger.

Though a style brutal to herself, it was just as brutal towards her opponents, the little rabbit was a growing into a little terror, and when she started to get the hang of it, Alissa couldn’t stop smiling at her creation, even now Adrest could clearly see the damn dragon barely paying attention to her fight as she watched Belle’s movement.

Just as they were clearing out the last of their wave, Rin came over and helped, now even a speck of blood was on her, but where she’s been Adrest saw a small hill of dead worms. With Rin added to their side, it only took another minute to clear out the last of the creatures and they grouped up again.

“Well that was fun. What should we do now?” Adrest asked their nominal leader.

“If you’re up for it we can keep walking until we find a good breakpoint, looks like this place is huge so we should pace ourselves.”

And so further into the darkness they went, walking with the occasional D or C rank ambush which was quickly taken care of. They eventually came to a bend with solid walls and decided to set up camp there. While Rin could go a week without sleep, she assumed the rest of her party was starting to get worn down after all the walking and constant tension.

“After we eat, you all can get some rest and I’ll take first guard watch, we can do three three hour shifts, who wants to be second and third?”

Adrest volunteered himself for second shift as he knew it was the position that got the least rest, “Wake me up when it’s time to switch, Ali can go last since I’ll be the one who has to get her out of her bed roll anyway.”

Belle wanted to say she could take a shift, but she really was exhausted. For all the training and exercise the last few months had done, she was still a D rank and required rest, especially with her fighting techniques, her body was tired.

So with guard duty decided, Alissa pulled out dried meat, fruit, bread, and cheese for everyone. They were too far underground and there were too many unknowns to light a fire and prepare food, but as they’d just bought everything that day, it tasted fresh and was still satisfying, if a little boring.

The three that would be sleeping first rolled out bed mats and bundled indise, thankfully being so far into the earth, it was actually a comfortable temperature now. Side by side the three lay just a dozen or so paces from Rin who was vigilantly scanning the surroundings.

Adrest had been about to fall asleep after a long day, but he could hear Belle’s bedroll constantly shifting on the other side of Alissa. He opened his eyes to see Belle nervously moving her head scanning the dark. Alissa must’ve noticed too as she propped herself up a little, “What’s the matter, Belle?”

“Umm… I’m a little scared. This is really different from sleeping outside. What if the roof falls down or more monsters come pouring out of the walls while I’m sleeping?”

Alissa had a doting smile as she stroked the Rabbit’s soft white hair, “If the roof collapses I’ll be here to hold it up, if monster’s come, I’ll rip them apart. Sit up for a bit.”

Belle’s eye’s said she was confused, but did as instructed. Alissa stood up as well and picked Belle up, setting her down on the bag Alissa had been using in the middle.

“You can sleep between Ady and I, just try to relax and close your eyes, you need your sleep still.”

“Thank you Big sis Ali.” Belle blushed a bit and did as told laying down next to Adrest who was propped up on one elbow watching.

“Don’t worry Belle, I might not be very reliable, but Ali would turn this section of the mountain range to rubble before she let anything happen you.”

“Hehe, thank you Big bro Ady. Goodnight.”