“You know about the deeper floors?” Kanade came up with a question.

  “Oh, don’t kid.” He chuckles with a sassy tone. “I’ve been for hire ever since I had my daughter, so that’s about—give me a minute… nineteen years? It’d be an insult if I didn’t.”

  “…” Kanade’s gait stuttered. Han was quick to glance at her. She was burning holes in the back of Berdrogh’s head. Her blank eyes of surprise made Han laugh to himself, to be fair, he also thought that his kid had to be a child. She’s older than him and probably barely any younger than Kanade.

  “What? That’s a decent chunk of time. If I hadn’t explored every stick and stone around Higelsdale, it’s safe to say I would be a fraud of an adventurer.” He talked with his chest up high. Cementing the point that he’s quite proud of his work.

  They push on, going deeper and deeper into the humid cave. Han waited to see this beauty Berdrogh mentioned. With a shallow bend, the cave surrounding them tapered outwards, the exit being twice as wide than they started in. However, a bright blue light hid what was out of the cave’s corridor.

  “Ah, Kanade.” He turns his torso a tad to face her. ”Keep an eye out for an Iridensal Crystal. Hwoo! wish I’d find one; I’d quit working on the spot.”

  “Iri-denzel?” Kanade’s pitiful attempt caught Berdrogh off guard.

  “Huh?! Like iridescent, well… It’s a rainbow mana crystal.”

  Han’s heard of them but wasn’t focusing on their conversation. He was rather blinded by the light for a moment as his eyes adjusted, they had left the corridor. They were led into a huge cave, even the word “cave” couldn’t even fully describe the extent of its size. Every wall was covered with the dim mana crystals, however, their abundance lit everything up as if it was daytime.

  Multiple large ledges attached to the open cave were practically islands with their own ground and altitude. Building-sized columns holding the cave’s ceiling were somehow majestic despite being random stone.

  Loud trickling grabbed his attention, to the right of them was a gushing waterfall of the bluest water he had ever seen. The velocity of the wide waterfall pushed mist that could even reach them. Seeing Kanade slowly come closer to the edge, he did so as well.

  Down below was pure abyss; even having Pochirin’s decent eyes didn’t help. The hole that the cave was centered about was also lit up via the crystals, the density lowered with every floor, hence was dimmer down below. However, it wasn’t without interest. From here he could see over a dozen more floors following the same large cave system. To note, the waterfall kept going deeper into the abyss without a sign of stopping.

  After a quick look around, Han guessed the layout would be the same over the next ten floors or so. Glancing back at Kanade, he noticed her unblinking eyes glimmer. Watching the glowing accentuated waterfall for a good moment.

  “We’re splitting up for this floor.” Lionel simply said and walked off in a random direction. Juuka did so as well and without any worry either. Since Lionel took their far left and Juuka the opposite, they had to stick together for a bit.

  “Wouldn’t you know where the exit is?” Kanade blurted out, though Han already knew the answer.

  “Every dungeon expedition, even in the same dungeon, the floor layouts won’t be the same every time. Sure, we know what enemies await us, and what to expect the deeper we go. Not much more.” Berdrogh explained without surprise, seemingly already predicting her nature. Though, Kanade didn’t push further about the strategy since they were still on the lower-level floors.

  “Alright, be safe. If anything happens, shout.” He added before turning at the forked path and heading deeper into another corridor. Han noticed that she stopped to glance back at the open area. Before he could even think of a reason why she would do so.

  —Clap!

  Her handclap echoed to every corner of the cave until being muted by the overwhelming water sloshing. Promptly, she ruffled the fur on his head and continued deeper. Yet Han’s legs didn’t budge.

  I’m taking this too seriously…

  Everything that he’s been through were mentally draining, and that was it. This dungeon couldn’t impact him to the same degree that the possibility of being alone does. Even Kanade knew better than to be completely stone-cold serious. She turned back, noticing Han in the passing moment.

  “Come. Scout ahead.” She smiled, snapping him out. Her hand glossed over his head again as he passed her. Just like the others, they have entered a cave corridor, the blue light led them deeper into the cave system. While Kanade didn’t really know what they were looking for aside from it being described as the way down, at least they both knew that they had Pochirin.

  The wide corridor didn’t abide by the monotonous and symmetrical way of man-made corridors before. This one was carved in by nature, twists and turns, ups and downs. At one point, Han’s decent direction intuition was confused as they had hit a gradual U-turn. However, that didn’t matter, the sound of water up ahead confirmed it.

  “That’s why they wanted to split up…” She shrugs and mutters to herself. They went closer to the ledge. Han could see the cave they initially came out from; they were on one of the ledge islands close to the hole. There were still a lot of these miniature islands scattered across, both on their floor and the lower ones.

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  She could only sigh, and Han wished he could sprout wings. The ability to fly was an absurd quality of life improvement, here was one of the examples. If he could, he would skip a dozen floors and even one of the bosses. Though, now that he thought about it.

  Not very adventurous.

  It would be good if he were solo and rushing to kill the floor 30th boss. That, however, was not the case. Focusing on the actual purpose, and they turned back to their floor. The island had two more caves aside from the one they came through, so he chose a random one and pushed through.

  Kanade kept some distance, letting Han stride in front maybe a couple of meters ahead of her. Han’s eyes were peeled, before he could smell anything, a figure appeared.

  The low groans and mindless behavior. He quickly forced himself to get used to the stench he might encounter. They were lucky that it was a zombie and not something really dangerous. He didn’t engage on it. The rotten flesh wasn’t exactly an ideal thing to chomp on with one’s mouth.

  Kanade’s swift bow instantly had an arrow ready, the zombie was still oblivious to them. The bowstring fought back as she drew it out, brushing it against her chest, achieving the full draw. There was no reason to use ? Hypershot ?, yet her subconscious screamed at her to use it.

  Han kept watching the zombie being still; their encounter already stretched a few seconds longer than he expected. Nothing a swift arrow couldn’t solve. Promptly he checked on Kanade.

  She stood there, aiming at the unknowing zombie, shaking. Her focused eyes held the malice needed to shoot, yet her body could not.

  Shit…

  He inwardly sighed out of guilt and rushed to zombie. In a moment he reached his top speed, closing the gap in mere seconds, but then stopped, as a familiar sound flicked over him. An arrow pierced the back of the zombie’s head and went completely through it. As its body started leaning forward, Han wasn’t sure how to proceed.

  “Ah, fuck it. Good job.” He said it without her understanding. Somehow she quickly caught on. Her warm hand ruffled his head fur for an uncomfortable amount of time, despite it being three seconds.

  “You’re talkative today.” She adds finally stopping that incessant behavior. “Once we’re done, I want to rent a place. Remember the tavern? But with separate rooms, multiple bathrooms… though, I shouldn’t be relying on this expedition too much…” Her voice faded as she bent down to pick up the arrow she had shot previously.

  Han kind of knew she was right; it made him wonder if there were any high-level NPCs that weren’t to begin with. Being without a system was so annoying. Even he remembers in some raids where he was forced to go with quest NPCs, they had multiple trained couriers that stripped every monster the party killed to the bone.

  Taking hearts, livers, even bones sometimes, or blood for that matter. He sighed and inwardly steeled himself for the future. Averting from the ground, Kanade was watching him. Her green eyes practically seeing through him, forcing his heart to flutter for a moment.

  “…Do crystals even have scent?” She muttered to herself, yet her eyes were fully entranced on Han. He softly sighed of relief, then suddenly embarrassment. Following the cave shortly after, though focusing on the point she brought up. If they managed to find one Iridensal Crystal, it greatly increased the chances of getting another. The price of one in the hundreds of grams was multiple gold coins. Their use, however, had escaped his memory.

  Nonetheless, they kept darting around the cave system. After roughly ten minutes of decent pace, they had yet to find an exit, or at least another island ledge. The dimness though, crept up on them, every few feet the crystals were losing light. After another minute the darkness had peaked, even he was having trouble seeing. He turned at the sharp corner.

  Teeth. An unmoving gaping mouth patiently waited for it’s victim. He quickly glanced back at Kanade, unknowingly walking up to him.

  “Shit! DON’T!” He yelped, choosing to warn her. The monster, as planned, leapt on top of him. Han was completely swallowed; its teeth scraped the stone from every side. The dizzying stench stunned Han. Everything spun. His legs were slowly crumbling under his own weight.

  Before its large mouth could close, he jumped out and stumbled. He heard its mouth close with a loud clank. His legs barely moved the way he wanted to, turning around to see was the only thing he could do. The monster was a mouth on legs, a large bulbous mouth with decayed scrapped-down teeth, every single one was the size of him.

  “Tih…?” The mouth slowly turned to them, its lips curved in a sinister smile. “Tihtihtihtihtih!” It started cackling absurdly fast; every time it closed its mouth, the force sent out a deafening noise at a frequency where he wanted to rip his ears off.

  It started moving. The ground under Han disappeared as hands wrapped around him. Kanade had grabbed him, Han could only stare over her shoulder as the mouth closed in on them.

  Fuck that!

  He used ? Oblivious Howl ?, staggering the monster’s approach. Giving Kanade a decent amount of distance. The mouth shortly shook it off. The light washed over him. Kanade gently put him down and readied an arrow in an instant. There was no apparent weakness; she still shot at it.

  The arrow whizzed through the air at a barely visible speed, yet it bounced off its blubbery skin. Still dazed, Han managed to stand up; the ground under him was frighteningly far away. A glint caught his eye, soon an arrow was embedded into the thick mouth. Seemingly underrated, it stuck its tongue out, finally coming out of the cave.

  Kanade’s feet were glued to the floor, and Han wasn’t planning on leaving her behind. The worst didn’t come. The mouth started inching backwards, with a crude smile as if it’s waiting for them until fading behind a shallow corner. Just after that eerie scene, warm, shivering hands covered his eyes.

  “I… I almost lost you.” She whispered, her voice trembles. They sat there, unmoving.

  “Are y’all okay?” Juuka’s voice echoes around them, snapping Kanade out as she finally moved. Giving Han back his vision and sluggishly standing up. Juuka was also in the open area, although on a different ledge island above them.

  “Yeah… Yeah!” She once sniffled until loudly shouting back to her. “Hey?!” Kanade quickly knelt down near his behind, despite being inappropriate, that didn’t matter. A small puddle of blood pooled under him.

  Somehow, without feeling it, Pochirin’s tail was halved in length. Although he instinctively jolted back at the injury, the next action was to use his ability to heal. The exposed wound closed in an instant, encrusted itself with a scab, before it could even seemingly heal off naturally; it slid off, revealing healed skin underneath. Then promptly sprouting hair follicles. The hair’s growth was expedited in a unique way; the tail’s end fur was now perfectly white.

  Wanting to see her joyous reaction was instead met with teary, confused eyes. Nonetheless, she pet him; a single tear rolled down her cheek, then along the creases of her pitiful smile that barely held on.

  “Heh…” A weak, pitiful chuckle, filled with sorrow and contentment, brought Han out from whatever perplexing feeling had taken him over.

  “We match.” She brought out her tail that also had a white end, her tail’s length forced her to turn to the side heavily. Then she propped herself back up, brushing off her knees and turning back to him.

  “Let’s go.” She said, waiting for him.

  He stood there, with an expression that Pochirin’s beastly face had trouble deciphering. A single thought overthrew every other one. Han knew. He knew that she would live happily from here on out. He would make sure of that.