12 Traversing the Dungeon

It was the same dream again. The dream of the disgusting room, and the snow filled walk. Surprisingly it did not end when I slipped on the ice. I stared up into the sky, or rather I would have, if my vision had not been blocked by a girl that was around my age.

She stood above me, with a cigarette in her mouth, and her black coat wrapped tightly around her. Despite the cold she was still wearing a skirt.

I blushed as I realized what I was looking at, and quickly turned my head. The girl laughed at my actions, but none the less moved and offered me her hand.

"Quite a fall you took there, you ok?"

I nodded as I took her hand, pulling myself up from the snow.

The girl smiled. "My name is rose, its a pleasure to meet you."

"Sebastian. The pleasure is all mine." I said as I looked away. I found it hard to make eye contact after looking up her skirt.

The girl seemed to read my mind as she lifted up her skirt. My face immediately turned a deep shade of red. However I was surprised to see that the skirt she was wearing actually was part of a pair of shorts.

The girl laughed. "Well I'm glad to see you're not a pervert, but as you can see you didn't see anything you weren't supposed to."

***

I woke up in a rather good mood. The dream still fresh in my mind, I realized I had remembered my name. Sebastian. My name is Sebastian.

There was really no sense of time in this place, and the only type of clock I had was my stomache. The only way I knew it was a new day was the growling of my stomache. It would seem that I only needed to eat once a day, and my hunger would start to manifest when it was once again time to absorb something.

The rumbling in my stomache was enough for me to know that it was time, but I held off. After I had given the girl, no, after I had given Selena her bracelet we had finally left the room that had been filled with trash. The room that I had been born in, where I had fought the goblins, and we had defeated the spider.

It was to my surprise that after we traversed the now clear hallway we made it to another large room, though this one was many times smaller than the previous room. This room was also filled with garbage, With large heaps lining all of the walls. There was only a small circular area in the middle that was clear, as well as a path leading to this corridor and the next.

Seeing no enemies, Selena and I hastily moved towards the small clearing in the center of the room. The room was small enough that my treasure sense could detect anything in it, but to my surprise it did not react at all. There was truly nothing but waste in this room. I could only let out an unsatisfied sigh.

The sigh seemed to be a signal, as a pair of glowing red eyes appeared from the trash heaps. The eyes were soon joined by another pair, and another... Eventually a total of 10 pairs of eyes stared at us.

Selena let out a small gulp as the eyes began to move towards us. As they eyes moved, we were finally able to take a glimpse at the creatures that passed the eyes. The creatures had long brown bodies and six legs. Long antennas protruded from there foreheads. They were larger than an adult human, at around 7 feet in length. Their massive bodies stood around 3 feet off the ground.

Selena shivered at the sight. "Cockroaches. I hate cockroaches."

I nodded, cockroaches were even worse than spiders. The creepiest part of a spider were their long legs and their deadly fangs. However the entirety of a cockroach was disgusting. They carried disease, and the worst part is they were capable of flight.

Selena spoke again. "Thankfully these cockroaches look rather young. Their wings are likely not developed enough for flight."

I was shocked. It was as if she had read my mind. Selena did not hesitate as she imbued her spear with her firey mana. She spoke as she did this.

"When your intelligence reaches a certain level you are capable of developing a mana core. This mana core can only carry a single element. So when you develop one choose carefully, as you only have a single chance."

I nodded. I already knew this information, but it seemed that Selena was determined to educate me. Perhaps she was thinking the same as I was, and was planning to make me her familiar. I took this as a positive sign. Retrieving her bracelet truly had been a wise choice.

The roaches did not wait for me to daydream. They rapidly approached in a pack. The 10 of them attacked in tandem, attacking us from all directions. Selena however was more than enough to handle the young roaches. She twirled as she sliced her spear in an arch. The flaming spear head easily tore through the roaches' underdeveloped exoskeletons.

The fight was far easier than any had been up to this point, and ended in only a moment. 10 dead young cockroaches lay dead at our feet, and I did not need to even lift a finger. Only one thought went through my mind. Strong. Selena was unbelievably strong. Of course this was simply in comparison to myself, and the monsters of this dungeon. She herself said this was one of the lowest level dungeons out there.

We did not spare any extra time in the small room. There was nothing of interest for us there. Neither of us could bring ourselves to dine on the tainted flesh of these roaches, and the room was completely barren of any sort of treasure. A complete waste of time.