CHAPTER: 18: LUCA

  Mun wakes to an aching body, it isn’t muscle pain, but it is similar, he can’t put his finger on it, nut his once nimble body, is now heavy and stiffer than before, almost as if someone has covered him in weights to press down his body.

Mun opens his eyes and is greeted with the sight of a large snake woman, the same one he saw a day earlier. She has been sleeping on one corner of the room. Mun looked around, glowing rocks gleamed in the walls of the cave, giving off a strange warmth and a nauseating feeling.

“I’m in a safe room” Mun says aloud, almost confused. How can I still be alive, he thought, did she save me?

The lamia’s ears perk up, she hears a voice, the voice of the creature she had saved a few hours earlier. The same creature she jumped in fear the previous day.  She untangles herself from her body, to greet the creature.

Mun Look on as the enormous woman turn her body, Mun instinctively tries to take a few steps back only to discover that he has no legs. He moves his hands to see, again he had no hands, replacing both hands a feet are metallic tendrils. He moved his eyes like he did when he was first born, to see the state of himself.

Am I a bunch of tentacles again? He thought remembering his first time alive and being nothing but an entangled wood mesh. He looks at his metal tendrils and realizes that he has evolved. The only explanation possible.  

His size, it had been greatly reduced, he could still feel the wood inside if him, but he no longer felt as strong a connection to it; now it was the metal that called him, that he couldn freely control.

“h-h-he-e-hello?” The voice a woman entered his ears. A strongly calming and kind voice. Yet there was no sense of familiarity to Mun, an ability of a lamia perhaps, or perhaps it is precisely because it is a voice he has never before. The voice not only sounded pleasant to hear, but Mun sensed a slight tone of apprehension in her voice.

He turns his floating eyeballs to face her, she recoils, her face moves left in right, trying to conceal her fear.

Does she fear by looks too? Mun thought, remembering the scaring he caused Aura.

“Hello.” Mun responded plainly, the tone of his voice all dull and concise.

 The lamia becomes upset at his form of speaking, her face dropped ever so slightly, before jumping back into a slight smile. The two monsters stared at each other for seconds; to Mun he just didn’t know what else to say to  her, but she was simply to shy, or perhaps too excited to say anything more.

Am I shy? Or too excited?  I don’t know!! But, but I’m happy, she calmed herself, making sure to not show her over excitement. Not once had she met another monster like her, all the humans feared her and ran or attacked her. She has been alone for so long.

“hello.” No one to talk too, no one to say hello to.

“hello!” She said a third time, making sure that he could hear her.  She had been so preoccupied with her thoughts, she didn’t notice the stream of tears flowing down her rosy cheeks.

“Hello” Mun didn’t know how to respond to her tears, discomfort starts to take over Mun’s other emotions, so he only responded in kind.

“Hello.” She said again. Then again.

 Mun played along responding with a hello of his own, they didn’t know how much time had past but it had surly been a while. Mun continued responding, why he entertained the lamia, even Mun didn’t know. Out of pity for her, or out of obligation to her, he didn’t understand his actions, even so, he continued to say hello to her until she was content.

Never, had he ever met a woman so pitiful as her. Perhaps he sees it in her eyes, but they were of a similar kind to him, when he was younger. Afraid, too afraid to do anything.

“I-I-I I’m s-sorry for talking to much” She finally said after an unknown amount of time, her tears now dried.

“It’s alright.” Mun says, his voice still the same as before, this time he didn’t see her frown.

“w-w-h-hats your na-ame?” her voice quivered, it was weak from nervousness.

“Mun” Before Mun couldn’t decline to tell her, his thoughts had already revealed his name.

“M-m-my name is L-L-Luca”  she covered her chest with her arms, not out of shame, but to feel safer. She always felt safer when wrapped by her tails thick scales, but she had to face the monster face to face, so she usea her arms as a substitute for her tail.

“are you cold?” Mun asked, wondering why she spoke while trembling and why she started to cover herself so suddenly.

She tilts her head to one side, Mun could almost see the question marks floating above her head.

Dumb question, she has half a snakes body, so I guess that makes her half cold blooded? Mun began to wonder about the logistics of having half a serpent’s body.

“did you save me?” She shook her head from side to side, a social cue to remembered from a  group of adventurers she once saw.

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“I-I- just picked you up and ran here.” Isn’t that what saving is? Mun thought.

“Thank you, but now I need to go, I’ve been wasting too much time hear sorry. ” Mun tells her as he begins to spit out wood from his body, morphing it like he had before. It was no longer a part of him, but he still had some influence over it. He used the wood that was still intact and used it as an outer shell, forming a human esque body. The metal covered his chest and eyes. His wooden hands were coated in metal as well as his shins and feet. He stands up to her the wood crack in strange ways. The wood was no longer as malleable as it once was. It was stiffer but still flexible enough to function as legs, albeit with slightly slower movements.

“You can’t, you won’t make it.” Her voice came out clearer, she made sure to get it across as quickly as possible, she couldn’t afford to let him not hear her.

Mun turns towards the exit, facing away from Luca.

“I-tts alm-most time for t-that.”

“That?” Mun asked confused.

“Yy-ou don’t k-know?” She slithered closer, Mun quickly turns around to see her only a few feet away from him. He takes a couple steps back.

“No. I got out of my dungeon at a very early age.” He explained, not telling her that he is technically only a few months old.

Luca closes her eyes, trying to steady her breathing.

“E-every so many cycles,  something happens to the others?” Others? Mun thought before quickly realizing that she is referring to the other monsters.

“it h-happens to us too, k-kind of? I get stronger, and so do the others. During this time,  a-all of them try to a-attack us. We n-need to s-stay close to the s-shiny rocks, they d-don’t attack here o-often.”

“Don’t they already attack us?” Mun says, Luca shakes her head, denying it with all her strength.

“I mean…. They all attacks us.” All? As in all of the monsters In the dungeon?

“all?” she nods her head, something she does because it is the opposite to shaking her head.

“How much time do we have? I need to get somewhere.” In the back of Muns mind, he feels like he has to now work over time, to compensate for the metal he was going to sell. The metal is now a part of his body, and he can only take so much of his body out before he becomes too weak to function.

“t-there is a p-place on the f-floor below here. T-there, t-there is a lot of s-shiny rocks, o-once each one b-be-ecomes dull, the b-blood f-feast starts. But, we b-become stronger a-after.” she raises her human hand, it is pale, like it  had never seen the sun, snow white, mun thought. “last time I checked there was this many left” she raises her other hand and flips her index finger and places it next to her other hand.

“6” she doesn’t understand what six is, but nods her head anyways.

“Than we should have enough time. The exit is not to far from here.” Lucas eyes glisten for a moment.

“Its is!!??” She slithers closer, Mun takes a few steps back.

“Yes.”

“I’ve always wanted to see the outside, I’ve always heard the humans talk about it.” She began to talk about the times she has heard humans talk about the outside world, about the sun, the moon.

“you understand the human language.” She nods her head. She doesn’t understand much, but after 20 years of humans coming and going she picked a few things up, here and there.

“I can’t speak it though.” Mun had been gifted with the ability to understand all languages, but Luca had to learn it slowly, over the course of many years. She tried so hard to learn it, she wanted to tell the humans that came into the dungeon, that she wasn’t the enemy, but she never had the guts to confront them, even after she had learned quite a bit of their language.

“C-c-can I go with you.”

“No,” Mun doesn’t want to deal with her, she seemed…..

What does she seem like? Mun thought. He couldn’t find a reason to decline her offer. She had never seen the outside world, she doesn’t have anyone to guide her through it, she is helpless. 

Helpless, like he was, like Aura was. She too is like him, right? Even so he didn’t feel comfortable to be near a woman for such a long period of time. Unless…

“yes that could work.” Mun muttered.

“No?” Mun could almost hear her heart break as she repeated his answer.

“forget what I just said, you can come with me, but I am going to need some help first.” This could work, Mun thought.

“YES!!” The lamia slithered closer and closer, Mun takes a few steps back, but Luca was determined to grab a hold of him. She wraps her arms around him and lifts him up with her.

“Thank you!! Thank you!!” She yelled excitedly.

Her body was cold, His mana sense could feel it, it was cooling his body.

“that alright, just get off me.” Muns heart rate increased, he kept cool and pushed Lucas head away from him, but she kept pushing herself closer to his metal chest. It takes a while for her excitement to die down and put the haggard Mun down.

“Please, don’t ever do that again.” Mun takes a few steps back, making sure to keep Luca at arm’s length.  He has never met a woman like her. She was erratic and unbound by social norms. Mun had always took advantage of the fact that no woman would not touch him because of those social norms; But to Luca, a monster who has been trapped in a dungeon for all her life, she doesn’t care even if her bare breasts are showing, nor understands the distance she needs to keep between people.

“First rule!!” Mun began.

“Eeek! Luca tensed up from his yell, straightening up her spine in attention.

“Don’t touch or hug people you don’t know or are not close too.” She nods to Mun.

“Secondly, is their anyway you can make yourself look more human?” Luca thinks for a moment.

“I can’t physically change how I look, but I can make it so people see me differently.”

Lamias have the natural ability to cast Illusions on themselves. Making themselves appear differently than what they are, often times normal lamias instinctually transform into maidens asking for help, then they break the Illusion and kill whatever poor sap was foolish enough to believe that a beautiful maiden was asking for help in a dungeon.

“do you know where I can find more metal?” Mun said pointing to the metal parts of his body. He need to collect more and sell it. All of the metal he had on him had been used to evolve into what he was now. then he thinks for a moment.

“do you know where I can find a certain metal with a black sheen?” Mun began describing the metal. The rarest of them all.

“I think I know where there might be some, but its this many places below this one.” Luca shows two fingers.

“that’ low.” How strong is this lamia before him. Mun has had a hard time with the monsters of this floor, let alone 2 floors down, how strong must the monsters there be?

He checked her level before and checked it again to make sure, but it was the same, She was only a level 20 lamia.

“How did you get down there?”  She frowned, not wanting to remember much of what she had experienced on that floor.

“I was their when I was little, most of my life I think. I would always see humans come and go, but one time I saw where they came from, and went through there. I kept looking for place to go up and up, because I was safer and safer.”

Of course, She managed to get down here after human defeated the boss monsters blocking each floor. After she did it the first time she realized that the monsters were weaker the higher the floor.

Even so, on level 4 the monsters have to be level 25 or so. Luca probably doesn’t realize she is a lot stronger than she was back then. A 5 level difference isn’t that much when you consider it, Mun thought.

“Can you take me there?” Luca wanted to shake her head., but she also wanted to leave this place once and for all. The person in front of her was her only hope, he knew the outside world more than she.

Luca reluctantly nods her head.

Mun exits the room with Luca walking close behind.