A couple hours later, walking out of a moving cloud of fog, Bug shakes her head as beads of water run down the lengths of her hair, sending water droplets in every direction. Reaching up a hand, she wipes a layer of water off of her face and tries to flick it away from her with a huff.
“All of this fog is annoying; my clothes are getting soaked…”
Max and the rest follow her out with Hannah safely guarded in the middle of the formation, everyone else is wet as well from the thick precipitation, grumbling as they try to wipe some of the water off or wring it out of their clothes.
“Yeah, makes me wish that we had a Wind Mage with us, but they are already hard enough to find as adventurers, especially compared to other mages, as is.”
Bug turns back towards Max and tilts her head curiously. “Why’s that?”
“Hm? Oh.” Max has to take a second to remember that Bug, being so different from a normal human, obviously doesn’t know much about how society works. Even stuff that should be common sense.
“Mages, in general, don’t typically become adventurers. Most mages are nobles, so those that do are usually kids that ran away from home for one reason or another, or they are the bastard child of a noble and a whore. That’s usually the story for them whenever you see them, so they aren’t all that common and are usually picked up by the more experienced parties or even brought into an Adventurers Clan as members. For a small party like ours, getting a mage of any element is a pipe dream at best. Add to that the fact that a mage can basically find work almost anywhere, and that makes them even less common of a sight as adventurers. It is basically only the ones that crave danger and adventure, or have really hit rock bottom that would end up in our line of work.”
“Huh… So, why is it harder to find a Wind Mage then?”
“Compared to other mages, they are in even higher demand than most. A Fire Mage could make a living helping out at the forges, an Earth Mage could become rich working at the mines or a stone quarry, but a Wind Mage? They are needed for keeping the air ships in the sky. I don’t know how it works, but they make a fortune with that work and are always in demand.”
“Air ship? What the heck is that?” Bug asks herself in a whisper.
Bug’s only knowledge of the outside world comes from what little knowledge she had gained from Introductions to the Basics of Magics. One of the first Knowledges Bug had purchased on recommendation from the System before picking her chosen element. Though it had failed to include the fact that picking Death as your element comes with an almost ninety percent chance of just dying outright…
Regardless, the Knowledge only contained information pertaining to the outside world, in relation to magic. So, while Bug knows of the trees and the Sun, of the mountains and the oceans, of the plains and the desserts. Even of what a forge is or a mine and a quarry, as there are Fire and Earth spells made by the System, dedicated to their use, she doesn’t have any real knowledge about what a ship is, let alone an air ship. Which, when thinking about it, it sort of makes sense that information intended for Dungeon monsters, living underground, wouldn’t really need information about things that supposedly flies though the sky in the outside world.
Deciding to just roll with it and continue playing as the clueless outcast Body Mage – Which honestly isn’t a lie - Bug just turns to Hannah and asks her question with honest curiosity.
“What’s a ship?”
“You don’t know?”
“Nope.” She says with a shrug.
“Do you know what a boat is?”
“Mmm, I know what a raft is. Is it like that?”
“Umm… sort of, in a way, yes? Have you never been to the ocean?”
“Nope, but I know what it is. I want to see it someday.”
“Oh, well, maybe I could… Maybe we could go see it… together someday? Would that be alright?” Hannah asks nervously.
Hmmmm… Would she even be willing to show me by then, after I manage to escape the Dungeon? If she is still alive, I wouldn’t be surprised if she were to hate me… Still, I would like to see the ocean, and since she is offering, I have no reason to refuse.
“Sure, I would like that. But what is a ship?”
Hannah instantly lights up with a smile before going on to explain to Bug how a boat and a ship are different than a raft. It basically just comes down to a matter of size and how many people they can fit, but Bug happily listens as she is told about a facet of life on the surface that she knows nothing about, her mind made to imagine wondrous sights, filled with images of a bustling port town, its harbors full of behemoth like structures that can move across the water, or even strangely enough, flying though the skies, their bellies full of valuable goods and foods from faraway places.
“Have any of you ever been on a ship before?” Bug asks.
Everyone just shakes their heads no as they walk along the branches, avoiding walking into the clouds of fog where they can.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
Max speaks up for Sam and Jakub. “The three of us have never gone further than the neighboring kingdoms, and that was just for escort jobs, deliveries, and a bit of mercenary work. Basically, we have lived in Sil our entire lives.”
Hannah raises her hand a little. “I’m originally from Sarataga. I used to attend the university there. Have you ever been there?”
“Nope, never. I don’t even know where it is.” Bug answers truthfully.
“Really? It’s one of the biggest human nations on the continent. Their border is near the territory of the Demons. How have you not heard of them?”
Bug just shrugs and plays it cool, telling the truth as she always does.
“I’ve never been there. I didn’t even know the name of this city until a couple of days ago.”
“You’re quite the weird person, Bug.” Sam says with a shrug.
“Don’t call me weird. Hannah, what is a university? What was Sarataga like?”
She said that it is near the Demon’s territory. That must be where I can find the Land of the Demon Queen. If I am ever going to head there, then I might want to stop by Sarataga on the way.
Hannah hesitates for a bit, chewing on her lower lip as she mulls over the request. Her look is uncertain and a bit painful, but also nostalgic in a way.
“It was an interesting place to live. Much bigger than Sil is, but also a lot older and more set in its ways… The Church of the Goddess is very prominent there, and the academy, it is a place of learning… I… I would rather not talk about my life there.”
Sam gives her a pat on the back. “You a run-a-way from home? Yeah, I thought as much. Don’t worry, you don’t have to talk about it.”
“Ah, yeah, thank you Sam.”
Bug watches her and tries to think about why she would not want to talk about her home, but comes up short. After all, Bug has no experience with any of this. She doesn’t have a family. She doesn't have a home she can return to. She doesn’t even have a history beyond the past few days that she has been alive…
For some reason, this makes her depressed…
I wonder what having a family is like? What it would have been like if I could have been born from normal Gremlin parents instead of a plant in this damn Dungeon… Could I have gone to a university, like Hannah did? Would I have eventually run away from home to, or maybe lived a different life?
Before she can stop herself, Bug finds herself reaching out and grabbing Hannah’s sleeve, giving it a tug. When the taller girl turns to look down at her in surprise, Bug asks, “Could you tell me about your life?”
“Eh? You, you want to know about my… Why?”
Bug lets go of her sleeve quickly. “You don’t have to, if you don’t want to…”
“Ah, it’s not like I don’t want to! I…”
Hannah turns and looks at the others, feeling embarrassed and put on the spot.
“Uh… I can tell you later. Just not right now. Is that alright?”
“Mmm, mhm… Yes…” Bug works out through her confusion as her mind start to catch up with her and realize what she just did. Quickly looking away, she speeds up her pace and walks away from the group.
Behind her Jakub and Sam whisper together.
“No fair, why does Bug get to learn about her, but we don’t?”
“She really does like her more than us now, huh? Ah, we fucked up royally…”
“Have you noticed that Bug always walks away like that? She must get embarrassed really easily.”
“Yeah, it almost makes you forget how dangerous she is, like she is just some little girl, hahaha.”
…
Bug chooses to ignore the whispers that her sensitive ears can easily hear and keeps walking away. Thankfully, Hannah didn’t chase after her this time and is just watching from near the others. Bug can feel her eyes on her back as she walks away in a hurry.
What the hell is going on with me? I’ve only been messing with these humans for a couple of days, but now they… she has me acting all weird now… Why the hell would I care about her life? The only reason why I am doing this is so I can have some fun while I learn as much as I can about the outside world. I don’t need to learn about her past, or where she grew up, or what it was like to have parents… or to have a childhood… and making friends… having a life full of choices……… not being born a monster…
Bug reaches up and feels at her face, her finger coming away wet with a tear from her eye. Taking a quick breath, Bug feels as her face grows wet with even more, her vision growing cloudy as more tears stain her cheeks.
Am I crying!? Why? Why am I…?
Bug quickly glances back at the following humans, her sight landing on Hannah before quickly turning away.
I can’t let them see me like this! I need to, I need to… Over there!
Spotting a moving cloud of fog passing over the surface of the branch, Bug quickly runs over and dives into the floating vapor to hide away from prying eyes. Behind her, the humans call out to her in concern, but Bug just calls back that she is fine, continuing to move through the fog as she wipes the tears from her eyes.
Get ahold of yourself damn it! You’re stronger than this! You can’t let the humans think of you as weak, so get this under control, Bug! I’ve endured pain. I’ve even cut off my own arm and I didn’t cry, so get ahold of yourself!
Behind her, footsteps are quickly approaching, so she quickens her pace again, moving faster until she is reaching the other side of the cloud of fog. Bug quickly comes to a stop as she looks ahead of her, blinking the last of the tears out of her eyes as she wipes away some of the precipitation from the fog off her face.
The others quickly come stumbling out after her, wiping water off of themselves as well as they find blessedly clear air.
“Bug, what the hell is going on? Don’t just run away like that, what if we get separated?” Someone asks, but Bug isn’t listening.
Bug only has eyes for what is happening up ahead, and it doesn’t take much longer for the others to also notice.
Further ahead, where seven branches meet as a twisted and overlapping intersection, hundreds of figures are currently mixed in a melee of clashing claws and pincers.
Black, red and yellow, but also the figures of torn apart and twisted moving dead, ravenously attacking everything that moves.
“What the hell, why are there already Undead here!?”
Bug just casually answers while keeping her face and puffy eyes pointed away from everyone else, “They probably fell down here from the higher branches…”
“So… Hannah, which way are we supposed to be going again?” Max asks.
Behind her, Bug can hear as Hannah quickly digs out her map, answering shortly after giving it a look. Bug quickly takes this chance where the attention is off of her to wipe her face clean of any remaining tears and get her breathing back under control.
“Uhm… You see that branch over there, the third left at the intersection?” Hannah says nervously as she points.
“Yes…?”
“Yeah, if we are going to make it to the Safe Room before night arrives, then we have to go that way…”
“Through the battlefield of giant ants and the Undead?”
“… Yes.” Hannah says nervously.
“Eh, Bug!?” Sam calls out in surprise.
Bug doesn’t say anything as she shrugs back her cloak, exposing her four arms as they slowly shift into long bladed limbs. Stomping towards the battlefield, Bug lets out a sigh of relief.
Oh, thank REDACTED, a distraction! Maybe another Level-up will help me clear my head of these weird thoughts!