Exiting from the base of the giant tree, Bug and the adventurers climb down from of its many massive roots and finally, after a couple of days of quickly descending from its massive heights, place their feet on solid ground again. With dirt and grass beneath her feet, Bug lets out a sigh of relief as she plops down on her butt and looks up into the sky.

Far, far above her head, so far that even her enhanced eyes are having trouble perceiving it, is the sixth floor of branches where her little adventure on this layer had begun. And now she is all the way down here, her journey finally reaching its next big milestone within the Dungeon.

Bug had even managed to learn a lot of stuff, and even made a friend along the way. Even if that friendship will probably be painfully short, Bug can’t help but think that she enjoyed this portion of her journey.

It will certainly be something that she will look back on fondly.

As Bug is gazing up at the sky and the distant canape of the massive trees, watching drifting clouds of mist, and birds and bees fluttering around up above, Bug is pulled out of her thoughts as someone sits next to her on the grass.

Looking over, she finds a sweaty Hannah, breathing heavily as she collapses next to her.

“Ahhh, finally! We made it! No more stairs, bleeeh…” and then she was the dead.

Bug looks past the exhausted girl to where the others are retrieving their rope from the top of the massive root, Jakub climbing down from the top after dropping the rope to Sam and Max down below, because he doesn’t need the assistance to get down from up there. The man is surprising skilled with delicate work, and Bug is certain that if he had System access, his Dexterity would be quite high.

“You really need to work on getting stronger, Hannah. The others aren’t even tired yet.”

“Bleeeh… I try to work out when I can, but I just don’t have the endurance for it… Ah, I feel like I’m dying…”

Bug reaches over and pulls the canteen from the exhausted girls pack, popping the cork before tilting the thing over her head and splashing her with cool water.

“Ahhhh~~~”

Letting Hannah cool down for a bit, Bug hands the canteen back to her and then lays down on her back beside her only friend, just enjoying her presence in the moment.

…

As the two are lying there, the others eventually make their way over, Sam jokingly asking, “You two enjoying a nap together?”

Hannah responds, “I’m not napping, I’m dead.”

“And Bug?”

“~MmMm~ grass is soft, and the light is nice~” Bug responds though half-lidded eyes.

“What are you, a pair of cats?”

“What’s a cat?”

Sam just lets out a laugh at Bug’s question, quickly getting used to how little this weird little person knows about the world. “They are small and fluffy, lazy things that think they own the world, and they spend their days laying around waiting for food to be brought to them by their human servants.”

“Humans serve them?” Bug asks with a raised eyebrow.

“Yup, and we give them massages and clean up after them.”

Hannah adds in, “And all they have to do is look cute, and people love them, despite the fact that most of them are probably evil.”

Bug flops her head back down in the grass and stretches. “Oh, well in that case, yes, I am now a cat. Serve me humans and I will reward you, but if you touch me, I will claw you.”

“Huh, are you sure you don’t know what a cat is, because that was pretty accurate.” Sam says in a joking tone as she looks down at the two lazy creatures at her feet.

Max and Jakub join them, with Jakub wrapping up and tying the rope into a bundle. Max asks, “Is everyone ready to get going? I would like to finally get out of the Dungeon soon.”

As Bug is getting back onto her feet, she finds herself asking, “How are you guys planning on getting out of the Dungeon anyways? You know that getting rid of the Necromancer won’t get rid of all the Undead and the Mushrooms, right?”

“Wow, you really don’t know anything about Dungeon delving, huh?” Max asks, looking astonished.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“Hm, what do you mean?”

“Every ten floors, after the boss, is a teleporter that will send you back to the surface.” Max tells her simply, as if it is the most obvious thing in the world.

Bug's brain freezes up at that, and it takes her a second to catch up. In a hurry, she asks, “There is!?”

“Yeah. What, did you think that we we’re going to just stay in the Dungeon and wait for rescue, or try breaking our way back out through several floors of the Undead? Once we’re done here, we are teleporting out to safety.”

Jakub pipes in, “And I am planning on getting stinking drunk after we turn in that bounty. I can already taste the fried food and ale waiting for me. Maybe I’ll manage to get a cute bar wench to have some fun with me~”

Bug can’t help but let out a breath full of relief, the feeling overcoming her as she finally realizes that things won’t have to end like she thought.

Haaaaah… I won’t have to kill them; I don’t have to kill Hannah! Be it by my hands, or just leaving them to die after I fill this place with mushrooms and the Undead, I was so worried that they were doomed. That I would have to kill my first friend. Oh, thank goodness! I can just tell them the truth after we kill the boss and then scare them off into the teleporter. Even better, they can return to the surface and tell everyone that the second layer has fallen. That should dissuade the bounty hunters from wanting to chase me any further. Then, I can take my time clearing the Dungeon and getting stronger, destroying everything without having to worry about her. Oh, such a relief… Weird… this is the first time I have ever felt like this? Weird…

Max gives Bug a weird look when he sees her looking so relieved and has to ask.

“What’s the matter? You actually worried about us?”

“No, not you guys. Hannah.” Bug says as she points to the girl that is trying to stand back up on shaky limbs. “I don’t think she would survive the climb back up…”

The others all just look at Hannah, nodding in understanding.

Sam tells her in a reassuring voice, “Hannah, sweetie, when we get out of here, I’m taking you to the gym to do some training. We really need to get some muscle on your bones.”

“Mhhrmm… Don’t wanna…”

“Nope, I’m taking you, even if I have to drag you there. Even if you’re just a guide, you are still an adventurer, you need to take care of your body.”

“Ahhh, fine…” Hannah says in resignation as she sees how serious Sam is. And she doesn’t even doubt for a moment that the much bigger woman really could drag her anywhere. Hell, if she wanted to, Sam could just pick Hannah up and carry her like a sack of potatoes. She has already, just last floor after all...

Bug just gives her friend a little smile and says, “Good luck.”

“Thanks…”

Max looks down to Bug and asks her, “So, if you didn’t know about the teleporters, how did you plan to get back out of the Dungeon to claim the bounty? Were you just going to climb all the way back up again?”

“Hmm? No. I don’t actually care about the bounty. I’m here to get stronger, so I’m staying in the Dungeon until I reach the bottom.”

The others go goggled eyed at her statement.

Sam asks her, “You are seriously planning on going all the way!? The farthest anyone has ever gotten in this Dungeon is the thirtieth floor, and most don’t return from there.”

“Mhm.” Bug answers simply with a nod.

“Wow… and you’re seriously planning on doing it by yourself?”

“Yup.”

Jakub quickly cuts in, his voice a sounding worried. “Wait, what about the bounty!?”

“Hmm? What about it?”

“Well, we were going to split it evenly, so…”

“Oh… yeah, I don’t care. Just give my share to Hannah, I guess… Can we get moving? I would like to fight the boss soon.”

Jakub looks like he wants to say something, but Max stops him, “No, she’s right, we should get going. We still have a while to go, don’t we Hannah?”

Hannah blinks in surprise as her attention is pulled away from Bug, still a bit shocked by Bug’s words. “Hm? Oh, uhm, yes. Let me double check real fast… Uhm, we uh, it looks like we have about half a day’s walk to get there, not accounting for fights along the way.”

Jakub curses, “That long!?”

“This layer is rather large, and the boss is in the center of this floor. There is a lot of different routes to get there, and we have been traveling on the shortest one. Some of the other routes would have had us traveling for up to three days on just this floor alone to reach the boss.”

“Geez…”

“Mhm.” She nods.

“Hannah, what kind of fights can we expect?” Max asks.

“Large lizard and spider type monsters. We might even find saber tooth tigers here, but they are rare. There pelts are worth a lot of money though, so keep an eye out for them. Besides those and a few of the other species found on the higher branches, we can find tribes of mushroom men.”

Bug has to ask, “Mushroom men?”

“Mhm, little mushroom people that wear tribal masks and wield little spears. They would go up to your knees in height, so they are very small, but they have a reputation of being little menaces among adventurers. When you aren’t looking, they will try to steal your stuff, and if you piss them off enough, they can attack in little armies of hundreds of them. They use poison darts, and their spears are made from the needles of giant bee stingers, so they really hurt to get stabbed with.”

“Huh… Wait! Giant bees?” Bug asks in a hurry as she is suddenly reminded of something very important.

“Yeah, what about them?”

“I almost forgot; bees make honey, right!?”

“Yes? What the matter? What has you so excited?”

“I want some! You can mix honey with Jelly skins, right? To make sweets? Right!?” Bug asks the girl as she is looking very excited.

“Uh… yes. Yeah, you can. Where did you learn that?”

“It’s a private matter… and not important. We can find their honey here, right? Before we fight the boss, I need to get some!”

“But what about the Necromancer?” Hannah tries.

“Don’t worry about that, we need honey!” Bug says in a hurry, the prospect of making her very own sweets filling her mind like a happy dream. Her excitement coursing through her so much that her tail, which has been tucked away in her shorts to be kept hidden all this times, is practically fighting to free itself so it can wag and shake in excitement.

Max just looks at the overly excited horned girl, and eventually decides that it would be easier to just work with her, rather than trying to tell her no.

“Uhm, Hannah, are there any known bee hives on the way to the Boss Room? We could make a slight detour. The honey does sell for quite a bit, and we do have some jars we could fill…”

“Oh, uhmmm… Yes, there is, right here.” She says as she points to an area on the map. “It shouldn’t be much of a detour, maybe an hour or so…”

Bug, hearing this, clenches all four of her fists and gives a victory cheer. “Yes! Let’s go! I want to make some sweets!”