Chapter 26: Dungeon (V).

Chapter 26: Dungeon (V).

Francisca's POV

The second section of the dungeon was a little more difficult than the first one.

"On your left!" I take one of my silver needles and made it fly around the dungeon, focusing on aiming on the head and if the monsters have their cores on somewhere I can see-

Crack!

"Bullseye." I planned on hitting the cores first, because those monsters will have the ability to regenerate at an even faster speed than normal ones. 

"Alright-!" (Elre) began listening to my advice and inputs right after the cave entrance incident. He shot an arrow to his left without even looking, pure on trust in my words, he managed to kill a goblin as his arrows pierced through the middle of its head. 

The bloody gory scene was awful, especially the smell. The goblin stands lifeless for a moment before slowly kneeling down at the ground, accepting their doom.

That was the last of the blinking red lights that was on the [Map]. Well, the ones that were near us anyways.

"Nice one!" I raised my hand up for a high five and he awkwardly looked at it before I taught him how to properly do it. "Oh this is called a high five- we smack our hands together as a sign of well done or in this case! You did a nice one on that goblin!" 

When Elre finally understood, he gives me a childish grin and high fived back. "I am not familiar with your human slang but I will take that as a compliment!"

"It is a compliment, don't worry." I tell him looking at the trail of monster corpses that we've made, a little concerned. All of these can be looted but I don't know how to um… get some of the loot without damaging it. 

"But I wonder how long we've been inside this labyrinth. It felt like days have gone past the real world." I ask, but really I kept track of the time in my phone- but the clock is ticking a little faster than usual. 

Elre shrugs, taking his bow and wearing it on his back. "If I am being honest, I don't even know for when I go outside the dungeon I never ask for the time or the date itself. I avoid all contact as much as possible." 

What if weeks or even days have gone by and they're tearing the whole place down just trying to find me?

I can't do anything about it and just need to finish killing that minataur so I can get back to the temple.

He bent down and began taking some of the horns, leather, skins, monster cores and eventually taught me how to get them myself using the dagger he gave me. 

Elre outlines it for me, first showing me how and then I follow the instructions.

"I'll only teach you how to skin and loot them. One would usually have gloves for safety but thankfully, for goblins there are no need for that. What we need is their sharp teeth, you'll have to get them with this dagger." He points at my small dagger and I shake my head.

"How…? I think this is sort of impossible."

"It is, you have to take them by the gum. You can find any monster's weak spots, mostly which part of their skin is easy to cut open." Without much fear and hesitation, he put his hand inside the goblin's mouth and began touching the gums showing me where to cut. "Goblin saliva is also said to be a good remedy for certain things."

I moved back a little seeing what he did with his hands, "Whatever remedy that is Elre I don't think I want to be using any of it."

Elre chuckled, shaking his hand to remove the saliva on the side and offered me the corpse of the goblin. "Perhaps the mouth is too much for a child, you can cut the ear off instead. Go ahead, make a line incision on where the soft spot of the ears are and then create a main incision from the top and bottom."

"O-Okay."

This is truly a once in a lifetime experience, an elf teaching me how to hunt- kill and get their loot… this is advanced learning- I don't think the temple will even teach me this kind of thing.

My mom told me they'll teach me how to fight.

But I doubt they'll teach me how to kill.

"Well done, you're better than some elves that I know. Those ears can be preserved and be made for a good ingredient. I don't know if the human marketplace needs goblin ears even now, perhaps you can trade it when you get outside." He told me and well, I don't really need the money but this goblin ear can be preserved as a good memory for my first time looting in a dungeon.

"Mm, I think some adventurers are still getting missions or quests to hunt goblins. Mostly because they repopulate really fast and destroy private property of some villages." I took the ear and placed it in my [Inventory] before proceeding to the other bodies that were lying around.

We finished after about what felt like an hour, my spacial inventory isn't near to being full thankfully after all that.

"Huh well for now I think we can camp for a while here, we need some rest before getting into the third section of the labyrinth." He takes some burnable wood from his inventory, gathering some rocks and placing it around in a circle. "It will be my first time going there but hopefully we'll push through." 

I helped him with the campfire and threw a small spark of fireball inside.

"..."

Sniff… sniff…

"Ugh… I smell awful." I groaned, feeling disgusted with my clothes. I could hear Elre chuckle and walked over, placing a hand on my shoulder.

"[Water, water… rinse our dirt, oil and impurities. Clean what is needed and wash all stains. [Water Magic: Wash]." He casts a spell that removes all the dirt and surprisingly even the blood on my clothes. "[Wind Magic: Warm Breeze]."

"Whoah!"

The water dried up too! I could feel the wind, feeling like the summer heat but- this is similar to a hair dryer for clothes.

"That should clean and dry all of your clothes, human. You should remember that, it can come handy for certain situations." He tells me and I mean… this can be so handy for anything!

"You can take a rest, I'll be making us a meal." (Elre) tells me and I almost laid myself back into the dirty ground but not before being given a sleeping mat by him. "The ground is dirty, here use this. You just got your clothes cleaned, be a little more mindful."

Elre is sort of becoming my big brother figure now, "Thank you."

I took the mat and placed it down to lay myself to rest, feeling a little sleepy. 

I watched the campfire continue eating up the sticks, I threw a few more and Elre showed me what he was making. He places some metal skewers with meat, covered in spices and some oil. 

The smell of the meat as it hit the fire was divine.

Elre and I wait for the meat to cook for a bit, continuing to get to know each other. "My… brother and the other high ranked elves in the village were the only ones who could ever make it to the very end but not without the sacrifices of their life."

"I'm sorry to… hear that. It does seem you really admire your big brother."

"Can you give me the journal that I lent you?" He asks, and I take it out of my inventory and give it to him.

Elre caresses the front leather bound cover and smiles. "He was the one who made this. My big brother is my idol, the elf that I look up to. He is strong, charismatic and the best brother anyone could ask for. Not all elves are honest with their feelings, one would keep their thoughts to themselves."

"But… These days I'm rather lonely. I can't tell my father that I miss my brother, because he will continue living like he doesn't exist. Keeping these feelings bottled up- I fear what will happen if I continue on doing it."

"...I guess it's a little bit of the same for me. I have my friends and family to be there, to be able to talk with me but not with my true feelings- with secrets." My past life, my memories, the knowledge that I possess- as if I have anyone to tell that to.

"A child like you has such thoughts?"

"Mm… I never like to say it but I was born with such high intelligence I fear that they would treat me differently because of it. I am able to talk like an adult, conceieve magic without much problem and learn them at such great speed by just looking at them- knowing the chants is even enough."

It is a power given by a deity, a waste if I can't use it.

"Well being a gifted human is not a curse, I say that's a blessing your peers around you should accept and even support." (Elre) flips the meat that was cooking on the side of the fire and I continued to rant. 

The thing is- the human kingdom likes strong people… they recruit them, fear them and if they think the human is a threat to the peace they hunt and kill them.

"...Not all of my peers around me would probably think that way."

Not only that, I possess the most powerful tool- a cellphone with updated information and maps of this that could help anyone… as long as I keep using it and unlocking some of its features. 

It'll be one of the greatest items of the world even.

I lowered my head to my knees, I'll be safe if I keep acting like any other normal person here… but with the way I am now… am I doing a good job doing it?

I'm a decent actor and my parents thankfully sees this as a high form of intelligence but if I turn into an adult what of the future that I will choose>

"Here, have some cooked night prowler stew. The meat is fresh so expect it to taste very well." He gave me some food, seeing my depressed mood and I nodded my head in thanks.

Maybe… I can worry about that some other time. 

"Thank you." I take the metal skewer from his hands, blowing onto the freshly cooked meat glistening as the light shined from the fire that we had going. 

I think this will be my first time eating something like meat from a night prowler, ever since coming to this world I have eaten monster meat- but now dungeon monster meat.

I only ate what's considered "an easy to get" or other world animals that can be pastured. In any case, I wonder about the taste.

"Here goes." I took a good bite and immediately took a liking to it. I take a few more bites, leaving only half of the meat left before complimenting the chef. "It's good!"

"Well I got some herbs and spices that I packed before leaving. I had to clean the meat, poke a few holes so the heat can get in, rub some vegetable oil and place them right in the flame." (Elre) takes a bite of his skewer night prowler meat and seems happy with the result of his cooking. "It's simple yet so satisfying."

Not going to lie, I can't even reply back.

Because I'm devouring this night prowler meat like there's no tomorrow.