Adama followed the little rabbit man through the dark passages of the 20th floor. They twisted and turned through the depths of the underground Labyrinth, moving with a well-directed purpose, though Adama was only following his furry friend. After more than an hour of running, they eventually came to a small room. It didn’t have any trees, resembling a lush forest clearing, and it was one of the most well-lit Dungeon rooms he had ever seen. There were a couple of lesser medical plants scattered throughout the room, but the true prize was in the center. A delicate looking flower with purple stamen and sparkling silver petals glittered in the middle of the room. The plant gave of a scent that Tim could smell even from further down the tunnel, a soothing fragrance that reminded him of sunny spring days. He gently stooped down and plucked the valuable item, storing it away in a special box that they had given him for this project.
He had shown his ally the picture they had given him of Teasanare’s Flower, and the Almiraj had taken off without hesitation, only stopping to wave Adama onward. The little fellow’s excitement was infectious, and Tim found himself enjoying their run through the Labyrinth. They fought together well, the two of them together more than capable of destroying anything they came across. Eventually, the Almiraj had led him here, and it squeaked excitedly after he had stored away the flower. It prompted him to prepare himself for a fight, but he shook his head:
“I need two more. There’s still no time to play.”
The rabbit person huffed and stamped his foot in irritation, but Tim just shook his head firmly again:
“You owe me one. Now help me finish the job and we can spar.”
He was testing the creature now, seeing how it would deal with negative emotions. Quietly, he kept his hand on his blade, preparing for the creature to suddenly loose its temper and turn hostile. However, the Almiraj just cocked its head to the side, before nodding in acknowledgement of his point. It took off again, and Adama followed in pleasant surprise. This thing truly was human in every sense besides appearance, and its incapability of speech. In fact, he knew many people more ill-tempered and unstable than the small creature and reflected that it had proven nothing but a stalwart, if mischievous, friend to him.
The search for more flowers led him deeper into the Dungeon, where he found the remaining plants he needed on the 22nd floor. The trek involved some additional combat, but it was nothing the dynamic duo couldn’t handle easily together. Once they had finished the errand, they found a remote corner and began another sparring session.
Adama had grown pretty significantly since their last encounter, but the Almiraj’s own improvement was nothing to slouch on either. If Tim limited himself to his chanted Rippling Sword, they proved to be an evenly matched pair that soon fell into old rhythms. Eventually, Tim switched things up and started throwing out the Swift Strike magic without the chant, but that proved too much for the poor bunny man. Adama weaved a net so tight with his attacks that one of them eventually lopped off the rabbit’s ear. That put the swordsman on edge for a second again, and he watched the monster carefully. Would it prove hostile now that he had drawn blood?
On the contrary, the bunny just looked had him with hurt in its eyes, seemingly about to cry from the pain. This threw the adventurer for a loop in more ways than one. Not only was the creature still very human, but it was also acting like a wounded juvenile. How old was this rabbit, anyways?
“That one’s on my account.”
Adama muttered apologetically, holding out a potion, but the creature waved its tiny arms in denial. It pointed at Adama’s bag even as it rejected his potion, and it took a few moments before the light dawned in the swordsman’s eyes. He rifled through his pack and held up a large magic stone, probably from the Mammoth Fool:
“You want one of these?”
The creature- or rather, his friend-nodded vigorously and Adama tossed it the purple gem. The rabbit nibble adorably on the glowing stone, slowly whittling it down to nothing, and as it did its lost ear began to grow back. Adama watched in fascination as the floppy organ slowly regrew, complete with fur and everything. Normally, a regular potion couldn’t regrow lost limbs, so he was interested to see that the magic stone’s recovery ability was so great for the little fellow. As he was thinking about that, something unrelated crossed his mind, and Adama realized something:
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“You have a name you can communicate? Mine’s Tim.”
The Almiraj chittered enthusiastically and grabbed a branch in a nearby tree. It began scratching letters in the dirt, not letting Adama look at them before it was done. When he had finished, the rabbit gestured proudly at its script, and Tim peered down to look:
“My name is Arles! Nice to meet Tim!”
Adama rubbed his chin thoughtfully:
“Arles, huh? That’s a good name. How did you learn to read and write anyways?”
If Arles had been born in the Dungeon, and the existence of hyper intelligent and humanlike monsters wasn’t widely known, he should have had little contact with any of the other intelligent races. Arles was already scratching out his response as Adama contemplated these new developments:
“Lido taught me!”
“…There’s no need to put an exclamation after every sentence, you know. But who’s Lido? Another monster like you?”
Arles wilted a little after he finished his first sentence, which made Adama feel a little bad, but the bunny was already scratching out his response:
“Not monsters. Xenos! Lido and Arles are Xenos.”
Xenos. Now that was a name he hadn’t heard before. Adama assumed that this was what the intelligent monsters called themselves. He now had confirmation that there was more than one of them, which was nice, which made his next question obvious:
“How many Xenos are there? And how did Lido learn to write?”
More writing:
“There are lots of Xenos! We stick together. Fels taught Lido and other leaders to write. Leaders teach others. Fels is a mage!”
“This Fels…Is he an adventurer? Do you know what Familia he is in?”
“Fels works for Ouranos.”
Ouranos was another name he was unfamiliar with, but Adama assumed that that was the name of a god. The existence of Xenos wasn’t public knowledge, but Ouranos Familia had made contact with them and was doing them favors. Those favors were almost certainly a two-way street, and they were definitely using the Xenos to improve their Dungeon exploring. Just like he was doing right now. A tribe of intelligent monsters living surreptitiously within the Dungeon would know this place better than any explorer ever could. That was how Arles knew where the Teasanare Flowers were. Which brought him to his most important question:
“Would you be willing to introduce me to Lido and the others?”
If Ouranos Familia could do it, then so could he. However, Arles seemed reticent. Shifting from paw to paw, he began drawing his next response slowly and with some trepidation:
“Arles not supposed to talk to adventurer. Arles breaking rules.”
Tim understood immediately. Arles wasn’t supposed to have approached him in the first place. He was doing this in secret, probably due to a sense of youthful rebelliousness and curiosity. Introducing Adama to the others would make that rule breaking known, something the rabbit probably wanted to avoid. Besides, there was no guarantee that the other Xenos would be as friendly with Adama as they were with Fels, who had likely needed to work to earn their trust. Adama held up his hands in surrender:
“That’s alright. Maybe not today. Why don’t we get back to sparring instead?”
They did precisely that and didn’t speak again for the next couple hours. Once Arles had had his fill, he squeaked a cheerful goodbye and dashed away. Adama waved, contemplating following him for a few moments. But the rabbit was still faster than him, and he didn’t want to abuse his new friend’s trust, so he tabled the matter there. Adama suspected that he would see the little fellow again in the future.
All of this running around had seen Adama’s total given time drop below 50%. He had less than two days left to complete his remaining quests, but he wasn’t worried. Immediately, he climbed back up to the 20th floor and began baiting Lizardmen again. The poor fighters still stood no chance against him, and he cut them down in droves, earning himself two more Nails and the final Scale after just a few more hours of work:
Quests
1. Priority! 24th Floor Rescue! Done? YES Reward: 210,000 val
2. Need, Bugbear’s Nail x1. Own x0. Reward: 105,000 val
3. Need, Lizardman’s Nail x3. Own x4. Reward: 220,000 val
4. Need, Firebird’s Feather x1. Own x0. Reward: 135,000 val
5. Need, Lizardman’s Scale x2. Own x2. Reward: 150,000 val
6. Need, Battle Boar Tusk x1. Own x0. Reward: 115,000 val
7. Need, Sword Stag’s Antler x1. Own x1. Reward: 130,000 val
8. Need, Teasanare’s Flower x3. Own x3 Reward: 245,000 val
Reward at full completion: 1,310,000 val
There was only one major fly remaining in the ointment. All of this fighting and running around had seen him poisoned two more times, once when trying to find the flowers and again when he was gathering the last of the Lizardman items. As alert as he was, poison was ubiquitous in these floors, and Adama had no special resistance against it. Thus, he was down to his last antidote, and he would probably need more than one if he wanted to gather everything he needed in the time remaining. Pursing his lips in contemplation, Adama retreated to the 18th floor. It wouldn’t be his preferred strategy, but he did have something planned for exactly this problem.
Tim found a secluded place in the forest, rested for a few hours to return to top condition, rifled through his pack, and pulled out a Mixing set.