Another Section of the Pungent Dungeon

Oria's dumbfounded by Faruk's magic; all around superior compared to her. As Faruk's magic ended with the blowing ashes of those decimated monsters, he said this:

"...And that's how you chant a magic."

"Ah..."

"Hm? What's the matter?"

The Silver Dragon wonders about her awed look. "(That magic I used wasn't great at all. Most magicians can use that magic... why does she look so shocked?)"

"...mazing." Oria started speaking in a low voice.

"Eh? What's that?"

"That's amazing! The way you flew up there and said some gibberish things and suddenly a red magic circle appeared and poured out fire was so awesome!" she said excitedly, dancing as she tried to mimic Faruk's previous chanting moves. "Can I do that too? Can I?"

"(Wait, did she just say 'gibberish' things?) Hmm... through some consistent training of magic will allow you to have that sort of magic."

"Ha...!" Oria smiled bigly. "Heehee. I'll do my best!"

"Hm. (Now that I looked at her, her magic was fairly tiny compared to mine. Though unique, it was too weak and small to kill a monster in one strike. Hmph, no wonder she's that amazed.)"

"Umm... Faruk, what's the difference between chanting first then cast the magic and Master Dux's way to cast magic?" she asked curiously.

"Oh... that, huh... well, that's a bit heavy to explain. I doubt you'd understand about it now. But since you asked, I'll tell you in understandable words: the difference is that Dux's instant magic casting ability can only be done by skilled magicians. Imagining things to construct magic requires a great mind to do so, especially when casting powerful spells."

"Is that so..."

"Hm. And because of that, your choice of magic is very limited, especially when you couldn't picture anything greater than the ones you've seen or experienced in your life."

"(Huh... he's right... when Master Dux told me to picture the 'punishing heat of the sun' I couldn't do it. It's because I don't know how to imagine those words to life in my mind... I don't know how's the 'punishing heat of sun' imagined like, though...)"

Faruk then continues, "...Meanwhile, the chanting process lets you construct a magic based on structured words. No matter how great the magic was, as long as you can memorize the chanting words and have sufficient amount of mana, you can cast it."

"So... I must memorize those gibberish words to be able to cast magic... sounds hard..."

"G-Gibberish... please, Oria, they're not words coming out of nowhere. There's a reason behind every single word being used."

"Oh... I see. Sorry for saying that, hehe. ...Umm, but how can I know the words that's being used?"

"I will let you know about it later. Right now, you must finish this dungeon first."

"Eh? Oh, yeah... I nearly forgot. Hehe, learning magic is super fun."

"Hm. I understand your feeling. But please keep your focus at the task at hand."

"Okay, then. Let's go!"

The two heads off past the scorched platform and headed towards another platform. From this point it's pretty straightforward to a doorframe just ahead with no monsters blocking the path. But just as soon as they depart again, Faruk just remembers something.

"(Huh, have I told her that instantly casting magic can be considered heresy? Guess I'll tell her later. After all, she must finish the dungeon first.)"

The dungeon has torches high on the walls and some on top of nine-foot poles along the way. They are mostly spotted by Oria, who thought of them as a lamp to light the stinky dungeon. She crosses a passage where there are two thin pillars by the edge of the waterway. Passing that, she and Faruk reaches a doorway to a spacious room with nothing but one oddly short torch pole in the middle. The fire lights the color of green, outlandish to its counterparts.

Not only that...

"Oh? This refreshing smell..." Oria's nose vividly quickly caught a woody smell the moment her feet stepped into wide room. As she goes to the center of the room, she notices the green-fired torch.

"Huh... this one's short, Faruk," Oria looked at the short pole as they get near it. "The fire is also green..."

"Hm. This is an emerald torch. The smell that you sense is coming from the combusted material in the torch. It gives quite the refreshing sensation, no?"

"Yeah... but, what differs it from the others?"

"Good question. Do you realize that there's no monster in this room, Oria?" Faruk asked to her.

"Huh..." her eyes immediately looked around. "...You're right. There are no monsters around here."

"Indeed. It's all thanks to the odor in this room."

"It's from this green fire?"

"Not the green fire, mind you. It's the material that causes the fire green. A celestial herb that eternally regenerates even when burned, allowing infinite energy for the fire to continue dance on top of this torch forever."

"Whoa! It remains burning forever?"

"Exactly. That burnt herb disperses a fresh scent that repels monsters. Making the area it covers safe from those predators."

"What a great herb that is!"

"Yes. So, keep this in mind. In most dungeons, you'll find at least one of these torches standing somewhere in a dungeon. When you encounter one, then it is a safe point where you should use recovery items, magics, and other things to prepare before you go to the next area."

"I see. Even so, the fire looks so... immersive. I mean, like, I never saw a green-colored fire before. I did see a white fire before, but never I feel this... mesmerized."

Faruk notices, "A white fire, huh... where did you see it, Oria?"

"..." Oria went to a total silence again. But it's just for a few seconds. "...I don't remember. But I can clearly remember how the fire looked. It's... different from this green fire. That one..."

The child paused, clasping her arms around herself as her body trembles slightly. In a wavy voice, she continues, "...was scary."

Faruk quickly understands where that is going judging from her reluctant way of speaking. He calmly replies, taking care not to fuel her nightmare again.

"...I see. Let's not talk about it, eh?"

The child slightly nods.

After that, they go to a doorway to the north, just across the doorway that they entered. Past the doorway, her eyes catch sight of a massive waterwork where there's a notably gigantic watermill around the left lower parts of the waterway. That watermill creates quite the intimidating sound whenever it spins, even in its slow rate.

Meanwhile, in front of her stands another undeployed bridge. Again, requiring a lever to be moved in order to get the bridge passable.

"Ugh... not t-this again..." Oria grumbled, her eyes squinted.

"Gear up, Oria," Faruk stated. "There are FIVE bridges remaining, waiting for you to deploy."

"...S-Seriously, now?"

"Come on. Let's get this thing moving," Faruk floated ahead of her, landing on the hardy stone lever.

Concurrently, Oria mumbles in her head, "(F-Five... Five he said. I think my arms will broke when I got out of here...)"

Having no choice, Oria decides to push herself again to get the annoyingly sticky bridge control to move. With the help of the flower crowned Faruk, she pulls the lever with all her might. Again, it is irritatingly difficult; she feels like her arms are going to get dislodged at any moment.

Fortunately, unlike the last one, that lever she's pulling now is easier to pull, although the difficulty remains unforgiving. The lever goes all the way to the left, making the cogs underneath the platform to move and the bridge falls, giving passage to the exhausted little girl.

"Haah... FINALLY!" she screamed while letting out the longest breath of relief.

"Not bad, I suppose. For this one lever, I gave only a liiitle push."

"What?" said Oria disbelieved.

"Hmph, that stick was looser than the last one. The proof is that your muscles alone are enough to get it moving. I only give a slight nudge, allowing it to shift to the left side."

"So that's why you look so eased when pushing it!"

"Hey, no hard feelings now. It's too late to nag about it."

"Hnnn...!"

Hearing her pout, Faruk's deep voice surfaces, "O-r-i-a. No hard feelings, are we understood?"

"U-Uh... y-yeah, I understand, hehe..."

Faruk sighs, "For the love of Altria... you should know that for an eight-year-old child, your strength is far above the average human children."

"Really? Heehee. That must be from my hard work back at the camp!"

"U-Uhh... right... maybe that's the cause. (Sheesh, she's even more oblivious to what she said. That being said... it was true that she's stronger than most human child. Perhaps stronger than squires...)"

"Faruk...?"

"(...Hmph. That hero from 500 years ago... even she requires two extra pairs of hands of her teammates to get the hard lever to move. Meanwhile, Oria...)"

"Faruk, please, you're dozing off again!"

"—Eh? Ah, oh... pardon me. Where was I again?"

"Please, I'm kinda scared whenever you stopped responding like that..."

"It's a habit of mine. A bad one, that is. Fear not, child, for I'm still by your side now. ...Anyway, are you ready to go?"

"Oh... yeah, I'm ready anytime."

"Very well, then." Faruk looks far into the dungeon. "For this area, I will not provide anymore advice nor any help when fighting monsters unless I deem it dangerous. I will only observe, hence my true task in this Observer sphere."

"What?"

The floating ball turns at her, "Don't 'what' me, Oria. How are you going to get stronger if you keep on relying on my advice?"

"But still..."

"You could've gained experience by beating those three monsters I overkilled. I realized that I was carried away. So, for this time, you'll be fighting them all."

"...Hmm..." she sounded worried.

"Fear not, Oria. If I decide the situation is too dangerous, I will step in. I think your magic is adequate to deal with the monsters in this area. You can use your [Weapon Witchcraft] too if you want to switch to close quarters combat."

"Ooh... okay, I'll give it a shot."

"Good!" Faruk turned around to the north where the dungeon spreads. "It's a pretty straight path, too. So, it's nigh impossible that you'll get lost.

Hm. There are six monsters in total. Two on the large platform, one by the thin passage, and three more by the final section near the safe point."

"Six monsters, huh..."

"All I can say is good luck. Use what I taught you to deal with this dungeon. Oh, and strengthen yourself, Oria. You're going to need those muscles to move five more levers. Of course, without my help."

"U-Ugh... (t-this is a bit... too much, isn't it?)" she thought in her mind. "(*sigh* If I don't do this right, he's going to yell at me again... alright, then, Oria, let's do this!)"