It takes me a moment to realize I'm no longer sleeping alone, is this how it's going to be from now on? I don't mind, it's a nice feeling to wake up next to someone like this, although it's going to be next to impossible to get out of my sleeping bag without waking her up. I try to wriggle my arm out of the bag as best I can, it brushes against her chest ever so slightly; it's sizable enough that navigating my arm without touching it is going to be a challenge--I can even feel it through her clothes. It's not something I paid attention to before, but just like how my emotions are getting stronger, I'm also getting more and more aware of the body of other people.

Although I did pay attention to smiles for some reason, those are nice--Eda is smiling right now, I really want to kiss her and take her and-

I close my eyes and take a deep breath. If that's going to happen every time we sleep together, then I'll need to learn how to control myself a little better. It's not as if my body is moving on its own like last time, but there's no telling what will happen if I let me guard down for too long.

I finally get my arm out--but the moment I start to crawl out of the bag, something pulls me back in.

"Just...a little longer." Eda mumbles, rubbing her eyes with a yawn. "Mhh~ happy to see me?" Her hand slithers down, but it stops midway. "Haa...probably not a good idea, we didn't use protection last time and I had to run to the alchemist to avoid complications... I'll have to buy a few infertility potions next time..."

Now that she's fully awake, I have no qualms about getting out of the sleeping bag, even if she protests a little. I think it's the first time I've ever done something she didn't want me to do, actually, but we have to get out of bed eventually. I put my clothes on and Eda follows me out of the tent soon after, Cel and Cayden are already here and ready to go; I'm not sure how long they were waiting for us.

"Took you two long enou-" Cel is interrupted by a light shove from Cayden. She glares at him, but she doesn't say anything else.

"It's fine, you can take as long as you need, we're not in a hurry," Cayden says, grinning from ear to ear. Eda takes a step away from me--I guess she still cares about what he thinks.

We continue searching for the dungeon, Cayden sings a happy tune as Cel helps us not get killed by every single plants in the forest--she even points out which plants are edible or not, I have no idea if those will give me buffs or not, but plant matter is a lot easier to preserve than meat, so I still grab whatever I can. We go through each spot that the dungeon is likely to be in, until Cel motion for us to stop.

"One of those trees is the dungeon," Cel states.

"Which one?" Cayden asks, eyeing the same looking trees up and down.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Don't know. It could be all of them, dungeons aren't exactly consistent." She pushes her glasses. "Sword guy, stab each tree. Since the dungeon's recent, it's likely the bark will be softer than most natural trees.

Cayden does so, lightly poking the first tree with his sword, as if he's afraid he's going to actually hurt the tree. Cel shakes her head, mimicking a stronger sword thrust with her hand, as if she's the one holding the sword. Cayden nods and swings the words at the tree as hard as he can, a strong THUD can be heard as the sword lodges itself in the tree. Cayden struggles to pull it out and look back to Cel expectantly, she shakes her head. He shrugs and goes on to hit each tree with more or less the same result, until he makes a very clean slice through one of them. The tree has what looks like green maggot reconstruct the cut, and it's as if no damage was done at all.

"Aight, that's the one, now get in," Cel says as she sits down on the forest grass.

"And where's the entrance?" Cayden asks, poking the 'tree' with his sword a few times.

"Dunno, you're adventurers. Dungeons are your specialty, figure it out."

"Eda, can you make it stop growing back?" Cayden asks.

"Sorry I wasn't...paying attention. What should I- Right, the tree. The best I can do is slow down its growth."

Eda casts something on the tree, and Cayden holds his sword tight as it starts to glow.

"Death of a million cut."

Cayden starts slashing at the tree faster and faster, the texture of the bark is more flesh than plant at this point. After the hundredth or so sword swing, Cayden's movement becomes too fast to be followed by anyone's eyes. It makes me realize how strong Cayden actually is, he could probably take all of us on in a fight--even if we added Lexia into the mix. He's only getting stronger too, everyone in our team is, but not me. I feel like I'm always behind when it comes to fighting, the only stat that I have that has been steadily improving is charisma, but the only difference it has made is improve the quality of my meals and the buff they provide. But those buffs are helping them fight better, so I suppose I am indirectly helping a lot in combat.

As if sensing my thoughts, Eda hugs me from behind and whispers in my ear, "I still think you're cooler." It makes me feel a lot better to know someone thinks I'm not useless, it's also the first time Eda has ever stated she preferred me over Cayden verbally. I still don't think she's right, though. I'm not as strong as he is, and I'm definitely not cooler. I wish I was a more like him, then maybe Eda would really love me.

Cayden hits the tree one last time, he somehow carved an entrance into the dungeon with his sword alone, revealing a staircase inside the hollow tree.

Cel yawns. "There was probably an easier way to do this, but what do I know. I'll wait outside the dungeon until you come back."

Cayden sheathes his sword and turns back to Cel. "Isn't it dangerous for you to stay here all alone?"

"Anything that moves will get gobbled up by the plants. The one advantage of this forest is it acts as great pest control."

"If you say so. Alright, let's go." Cayden takes the first step inside dungeon, occasionally slashing the walls to make sure they don't regrow any further.

After Cayden makes sure it's safe, I walk up to the entrance to follow him inside, but a hand on my shoulder stops me. That hand belongs to Cel.

"Don't know how long you'll be here. Can you cook something that'll last a couple of days? Food's expensive, your cooking's good," Cel mumbles. She really did like my food that much, huh. She even complimented it verbally this time, I'd say that's unlike her, but I don't know her well enough to make any assumption, maybe she's just grumpy with people she doesn't know.

I quickly cook something for her. It's fried mushroom mixed with rice--we have a lot of rice left in stock. I hand her the food; she puts most of it in her inventory, only keeping one bowl with her that she takes a bite of--and then, the unthinkable happens.

She smiles.