<~> CHAPTER 56

The next time I opened my eyes I had a stomachache. I don't remember shifting but I was in my human form with my head resting on Luna's lap. Smiling down at me, she drew a lock of hair out of my face. ("Are you feeling alright, Helena?")

("I feel a little sick,") I told her with a grimace. I sat up and ran my hand across my face. I felt like crap. ("Can I have some water, please?")

("Sure.") She handed me one of our canteens and I started slowly drinking down the water. It was refreshing and my stomach settled a little, but I realized what the problem was. "I think I am hungry," I said out loud.

Luna frowned and dug through her pack. ("We didn't bring any monster meat with us so all we have is our rations and some leftover raw venison.")

She handed me the hard and salty jerky and I started to scarf it down. It helped. Normally the jerky isn't very palatable but right now anything is better than my empty stomach. I took another gulp of water and finished off the small bundle of jerky Luna had given me. It wasn't quite enough, I'm still hungry, but it'll do for now.

"Thank you," I told her. I looked up at everyone else who were all looking at a chest that had been dragged to the center of the room. Aria was looking through the daggers and Piper scrutinized the strange blue metal. I wonder what we would have done if we didn't have Luna's magic to weaken the metal during the fight.

("Are you alright?") Luna asked again.

I looked at her but I couldn't hold eye contact, I looked back down at the floor in front of me. ("I... fucked up in that last fight. I would have died if it wasn't for my regeneration... again. I keep thinking I'm getting better but then I keep just scraping by. Aren't the enemies supposed to be getting weaker?" I grumbled.

Luna took my hand and intertwined her fingers in mine. ("Perhaps you did make a mistake, but that was a difficult foe. You dodged numerous attacks nonstop during that entire fight. At the end I think you got greedy, you took a risky attack and paid for it in a way that would have likely killed anyone else. But you're not anyone else. It may be gruesome to watch, but you can afford to be a little greedy. Ending that fight there could have paid off, if it wasn't for that surprise attack at the end you could have ended the fight before anyone else could get hurt.") She shook her head. ("I'm not telling you to be reckless, you should try and learn from your mistakes but don't beat yourself up too badly. We've been adventuring for a while now and you've been at it for less than a month. Your strength has outgrown your experience, but you've been catching on quickly. If you don't push yourself a little, it's harder to grow. You just have to push yourself to different extremes than most people.")

I played the fight back in my head. Did I get greedy? I thought my axe would cut through both legs cleanly but it didn't. Was the attack reckless in the first place or did I just make a miss calculation? I sighed and stood up before turning and helping Luna to her feet as well. Now that I was upright again everyone was crowding around the unopened chest. They waited for me. The thought brought a small smile to my lips.

"Sorry for the nap. Thank you for waiting for me. Is everyone ready to look inside?" I asked.

Aria was practically vibrating in excitement while Maxwell and Piper were a bit more subdued but clearly antsy. This had been a great haul for them already, but it was hard not to get excited when opening a mystery box full of treasure!

Maxwell did the honors once again, popping the lock off with his crowbar and swinging the box open. The first item on top was made of metal and pulleys and it wasn't until Maxwell pulled it out and held it up that I realized what it was.

"What is it? Some kind of clockwork device?" Aria asked looking at the contraption.

I looked at her and raised an eyebrow. "That is a..." I frowned, not having any clue how to explain it. Instead, I turned to Piper. ("Isn't that a compound bow? It uses those pulley cables to hold the tension in the bow when you pull it back.")

I didn't know that much about compound bows but I've seen them in movies and stuff.

I listened to Piper and picked out the words I wasn't familiar with as she explained to Aria what I thought it was. Aria understandably lit up with excitement when she heard it was a bow. Maxwell dug through the box and pulled out a spare set of bowstrings and cables and a thin book that had drawings showing how to restring it with another crank device in the box. Luckily for all of us, the bow was already strung up properly so Aria wouldn't have to deal with that yet.

Inside was the bow, bowstrings, two dozen arrows, and a set of light armor that could only be sized for Aria. It seems this box was mostly a box of goodies for her. She had even collected all of the daggers from all the smaller clockwork ballerinas, twelve in total. The 'dagger' the giant ballerina used was too large to actually be useful for any of us, even me. The arrows were interesting though, they seemed like they were made of a light bronze-colored metal and had synthetic fletching. They stood out as pretty alien to the others even if the materials seemed familiar to my eye.

Next up was a leather satchel with potions inside. Each of them was labeled but I couldn't read any of them. Luna told me they were for restoring mana and health, so they would be good for her to hang onto in case of emergencies. There was also a spare set of clothes that looked sized to my human form. They weren't magical or anything but having a spare set of clothes would be nice when I wasn't wearing my armor. Considering I only had things from the dungeon it was nice to have.

The last thing in the bag was a bit unexpected, two decently large backpacks. Neither of them were magical like Maxwell's but considering Aria and I had both been reliant on everyone else to carry our stuff, this had been a great find. Inside them were some basics, as if the bags had been prepacked with small survival kits. Rope, bandages, basic climbing tools, a scratchy stone for sparking fires with, and a few other miscellaneous camping basics.

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Piper lightly kicked the chest with her foot. "Everything was for Aria and Helena, other than the potions. I feel left out," she said with some humor in her voice.

Maxwell shrugged. "The chest gave Helena and Aria some much needed equipment, I'm still happy with the sword I found on the fifteenth floor and that healing .... was a good find for you too."

Piper laughed. "I know, I know. Hard to complain with the number of chests we've found on this delve."

"On the ...., I can finally help everyone out at full strength. Now that I have a pair of good daggers and this new, if strange bow, I can finally help all of you without feeling like dead weight," Aria added.

"I think you have been helpful. Ever since the spider," I told her.

She grinned. "Well thanks, but .... happy to have something familiar now. Even if .... an unfamiliar kind of familiar."

I frowned and thought about what she was saying. Am I missing the contractions?

"Can you repeat that slowly?" I asked.

She cocked her head but repeated herself slower. Now that I knew what I was missing the words stood out to me like a sore thumb.

"I said something like... Well thanks, but I'm happy to have something familiar now. Even if it's an unfamiliar kind of familiar... I think that's all I said?" Aria replied in confusion.

I nodded. "Thank you. I think... I'm starting to get a better understanding of your language."

"Oh! I see. Uh, no problem I guess," Aria responded with a smile.

My stomach grumbled and I was more than ready to get off this floor that gave me a constant headache with all the clockwork sounds everywhere. I hope the next floor had some good... or rather decent monster meat to eat. I think getting hurt and regenerating burns through my calories, I'm always so hungry after I heal.

On our way to the next floor we ran into more of the clockwork monsters but like before, these ones weren't dangerous for us at all at this stage. Aria tried her bow a few times but it quickly became apparent that while her aim was true, the metal arrows she was shooting at these mechanical monsters weren't going to do much to them. The arrows seemed pretty sturdy though, she didn't have any trouble collecting them. I could tell she was a bit disappointed though, I got the impression she wanted to show off to Maxwell. The thought made me smile.

"How is the compound bow?" I asked Aria.

She looked down at it for a moment before smiling. "Strange. It's .... to pull back at first but once you get it to its full .... it becomes easy to hold, letting me take .... more .... It will take a little getting used to but I'm really happy with it. These monsters don't make good targets though."

"That's good," I replied. "The bow looks strong."

She nodded in satisfaction before going on ahead of us again. Aria continued to scout for us but we weren't very worried about the monsters anymore. I think she was doing it mainly just to refresh her skills, she hasn't been doing as much scouting since joining our group. Her new daggers have proved to be really sharp, though notably not magical according to my blindfold. They just seemed like really sharp metal, not anything on the same level as Maxwell's magic sword. I wasn't sure how sturdy they actually were. They were certainly stronger than the normal clockwork monsters that I cleaved through in one hit but I wasn't sure how hot Luna's magic was. Her magic sometimes melted the normal clockwork monsters in place but the blue metal had only become more vulnerable to the heat of her magic.

Once Aria rejoined us I decided to ask her another question, "Aria, is your new equipment better than what you had before you lost your ...remember on the forest floor?"

"Remember? Oh, you must mean memories." I took note of the word she used as she continued. "Well, the blades were a little worse than these ones. I was using the same ones the normal dancers carry on this floor after the last time I passed through here. I have no idea about the bow, I've never used a bow like this before but it feels pretty easy to use. I'm a little worried about .... for it but hopefully that .... will help me."

I nodded. I wasn't sure exactly what she was getting at but I think she was talking about either maintaining the bow or restringing it or something.

Our group continued on and completely destroyed any group of those clockwork monsters we came across. Though this floor looked similar to the bloody halls, it was a lot more relaxing to travel through compared to that paranoia inducing floor. I mostly talked to Luna while walking since the monsters weren't very dangerous and Aria had done a good job of scouting. I needed something to keep me occupied to keep my attention off all the annoying noise on the floor and I was lucky that she indulged me. Even looking through my blindfold's magical sight wasn't as interesting on this floor. The clockwork monsters still registered as magical but other than those, there wasn't much to see.

We finally reached the stairs going up after wandering for a while longer. I was still hungry after the last fight and was quite happy when I was told we would be heading to the next floor instead of taking a break or camping here. I was sick of the smell of oil and the constant ticking everywhere so I was happy we would be moving on so soon. This floor went pretty quick all things considered. The boss was fairly challenging but I was happy with what we received as a reward. It might be an odd thing to focus on, but having my own backpack actually meant a lot to me.

I ran my hands against the cool stone of the stairwell and smiled. Another floor conquered. Then I followed my friends up the steps.