<~> CHAPTER 40

The change in atmosphere was immediately noticeable once we stepped out onto the new floor. For one thing, the view was absolutely beautiful. The stairs led into a large open cavern with giant glowing rocks growing out of the walls. The floor had pools of water all over the ground that reflected the light coming off the shimmering crystals giving the entire place a magical glow.

Luna turned back to me and smiled. ("Beautiful, isn't it?")

I smiled back at her. ("It is.")

".... everyone, let's rest for .... ...," Maxwell said.

Like the other underground floor I woke up on, the stone was hard enough that it made more sense to hang the tents from poles rather than attempt to stake them into the ground. It was a bit more finicky to set up but it wasn't very difficult to stack rocks on what was essentially a tarp over a wooden frame. Aria seems to have begun to fit right into the group, she immediately began to help set up camp and I noticed that Maxwell never asked for her to return the sword she had been given. After the harrowing fight with that spider monster, it didn't seem like Maxwell was very distrustful of her anymore. I wasn't really sure what to think about her since unlike the others I wasn't able to talk with her much and she didn't seem keen on interacting with me the same way Maxwell tried to. I could tell that she was still scared of me.

I shifted back to my human form before walking over and crouching down next to Luna who was setting up rocks and wood for a fire pit. ("Hey Luna, what kinds of monsters do we need to worry about on this floor?") I asked.

She smiled at me before turning back to continue her work. ("This floor mainly has these large monsters on four legs called barletts. They are strong and have thick skin but they're pretty slow and easy for us to deal with. This floor is pretty good for collecting minerals and mining so if you're able to fight them off you can make decent money protecting mining groups. We've done a little bit of that work but our team has always been so unbalanced that the only time we were able to get jobs like that was to sign on with a different group temporarily. We were always good enough to fill in but not well-liked enough to get a permanent spot. We had gone down to the sixteenth floor so that we could grow stronger fighting goblins and hopefully attract better party members. After this trip, my cut should be big enough that I can get training in silent casting which will make me a lot more similar to a mage who can speak incantations properly. For obvious reasons, I've been restricted to spells that I could cast without using incantations to focus my magic. It won't make me stronger exactly but it'll make me a lot more versatile and more similar to a normal mage of my strength.")

("Why would goblins make you stronger? They didn't seem that hard to fight,") I asked.

Luna tapped her lip with a finger in thought for a moment. ("Supposedly, everything you find in dungeons is high in ambient mana. The stronger the monster the more mana. When you kill a dungeon monster you absorb part of their mana and grow stronger for it. Every monster we've killed so far has made us stronger, you probably even more so since you're able to ingest the dense mana of monsters directly. Goblins are kind of interesting to train on because for some reason the mana they release is more compatible with humans and beastkin. They're dangerous to fight in large groups, especially for women, but people who train on goblins grow at a much faster rate than other monsters. That was why we had made a point to kill every goblin we could find, aside from them being horrible creatures that do unspeakable things to the women they capture, each kill allowed us to grow that much stronger.")

The mana in the air swelled around the firepit and suddenly it burst into a roaring fire before settling down into a more controlled flame. She then started to pull out some more meat and vegetables we still had to make another stew for everyone. This was the first time I had seen her do any cooking, usually it had been Maxwell or Piper cooking. When she noticed me watching she blushed a little. ("I'm not the best cook but it's my turn this time, to make up for not helping with the fire last time.")

I tilted my head, I didn't recall any time that she hadn't started the fire but it didn't really matter. ("Do you like to cook?") I asked.

She giggled. ("I hate it actually. It may be a bit stereotypical of a fire mage but I have a bad tendency to burn things a lot of the time.")

I laughed with her. ("Well, if it makes you feel better, I love to cook. Though maybe you wouldn't think so with how often I'm eating things raw.")

She laughed again but had a pained look in her eyes as she rubbed her throat.

I frowned. ("Are you okay?")

She took a sip of her canteen and took a scratchy breath. ("Yeah... When I laugh too much my throat starts to hurt. Or, well, any sounds I make really... I don't really like to tell people because they sometimes start to act differently around me. They stop telling jokes and stop trying to make me laugh because they don't want to give me a sore throat.") She turned and looked at me with a sad look on her face. ("Don't... do that too, please. I've been having a lot of fun around you because you don't treat me weird or like I'm not there at all.")

I smiled and pulled her into a side hug. ("I'll never stop making you laugh, promise.")

She nuzzled into my neck so I kissed her on the head.

I sniffed the air. ("You might want to add some water to that stew before you burn it though...")

She jerked away and quickly added some more water from her canteen. ("Oh shoot, that was close... I told you I'm a horrible cook...")

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Patting her on the shoulder, I pulled the canteen out of her hands before she thinned it out too much instead. ("Don't worry, when we have the time I'll show you a thing or two. Maybe you'll enjoy cooking more if we do it together.")

She smiled back at me. ("Maybe... t-thanks...")

("No problem.") I looked over at the puddles of water all over the place. ("Is that water drinkable? Assuming you boil it first of course.")

("Technically yes, but it doesn't taste very good. The water mixes with the soil too much so even if you sift it out and boil it, it still tastes kind of weird. I know people drink it sometimes but it's usually only if they're totally out of water or something. Usually people can wait until they make it to the forest floor and there's water on a few of the upper levels of the dungeon that tastes better too.")

Maxwell, Piper, and Aria dragged over some larger rocks to sit on while we were finishing up the stew so I sat back and let Luna prepare everyone's bowls.

Piper laughed and said something to Luna that made her blush. A lot of times I would let these things pass but I decided that I was too curious this time. ("What did she ask you?")

She looked at me with a pout and a still slightly red face. ("She said... she was glad I didn't burn it this time...") I couldn't stop myself from laughing which got a giggle out of her too.

I noticed Aria was staring at me so I turned to look at her. She jumped once she realized I was focused on her. "What?" I asked.

"Oh, I .... .... looking .... your eyes, They look .... .... on this floor." she hesitantly replied.

("She said your eyes look really bright here,") Luna helpfully told me. Luna must have noticed the slight confusion on my face.

I looked up and saw the subtle reflection on the walls from my eyes. It had gotten to the point that I had mostly forgotten about how my eyes look. Even the slight glints and reflections that I saw everywhere had stopped looking weird to me.

I shrugged back at her. "My eyes... like this now."

I saw her brow knit in confusion but she just nodded to me in response. I didn't really think I was getting any closer to her but a lot of that came down to the language barrier we had. Luna didn't have any more rings for us and I doubted Maxwell was going to give his up even if he rarely used it. We trust Aria a bit more now that she fought with us and didn't take the opportunity to stab us in the back but that didn't mean Maxwell would lend her something so obviously valuable to all of us. I'm sure the only reason they lent this one to me was because they had a spare and I didn't speak their language at all. At this point the simple ring was among my most valuable possessions, it was the only way I could talk to Luna and without it, she would be totally isolated again.

("Luna...") I hesitated. ("I hope this isn't insensitive to ask, but is it possible for someone to fix your throat? Make it not hurt you anymore?")

She leaned against me and showed a complicated expression on her face. ("It is possible to fix with healing magic. A strong healer could cut out the scar tissue and heal it back up properly, but that would be painful and potentially dangerous. The other way would be if an even more powerful healer regenerated the flesh and corrected the improper healing with stronger healing magic. Both are expensive and the second one much more expensive than the first. It's too expensive to even consider unless all of us somehow become really powerful and pool our money to save for it. It would also have to be after we finish paying off the rings too of course. I hope... it doesn't bug you too much that I can't speak normally...")

I wrapped my arm around her and squeezed. ("Of course not. I don't know a lot about this world so I just want to understand better. Especially... if we get married...")

Luna's complicated expression melted into a smile and her tail swished behind us happily.

("Would you want to fix it? If the money wasn't an issue?") I asked.

She traced her fingers across the scars on her throat. ("I don't know. The first option sounds scary, I don't know if I'd want to do that. As for the other option... I guess it would depend on where we were at in life. I wouldn't want to give up anything important for it. And healers of that strength can be difficult to find so I don't think I'd want to drop everything just to go looking for one... but even if I still didn't have a voice... it would be nice if it at least didn't hurt to laugh anymore... So I suppose yes, if a good opportunity presented itself I would take it.")

I laced my fingers with hers and kissed her on the top of her head again. The others were chatting and being merry while the two of us were in our own little world. My signs of affection put Luna at ease and she relaxed even more against me.

After a few minutes of silence, Luna smiled. ("At the same time... I kind of like this too... It's nice talking with you like this, speaking heart to heart like this. It's selfish, but I get to see a side of you that the others don't get to see as often. I get to help you when you need help translating... It makes me feel special.")

I squeezed her again. ("You don't need to translate for me to be special. But I agree, being able to talk with you like this all the time... I like it a lot too.")

("Then... even if I do have my throat fixed someday, let's always keep these rings.")

("Agreed,") I replied. Then, to punctuate the promise, I tilted her head up and gave her a kiss.