Chapter 2 : Lucky

Surprised by Naaza behaviour, he followed her. There was meal prepared, served for both of them.

Sidhe started eating, he found fish meat, ah, he adored fish meat. He had a content look on his face, his tail was again wiggling like a worm. Naaza lazily took pieces of a fried meat and eat them.

She said, after finishing eating a piece of meat, "I heard what Lord Miatch said to you. I will not say if it's a bad or a good decision. Plainly, I don't care. But you are part of the familia and the only person who remained with me and Lord Miatch. When you go down in the dungeon, be careful of people. Don't trust anyone, even if they are part of known familias for good behaviour. Be they the kindness incarnate, or the devil. Don't. In the dungeon it is easy to kill and hide any actions. Don't let your emotions take control, if you let even for one second for that to happen, you can say goodbye to your life."

She took another piece of meat and eat it, then continued, "Still, it's better to be in a team than alone. Alone you can easily be ganged up by monsters. Better cautious than getting excited by the loot and going too down. Check your surroundings, though it shouldn't be that hard for you to notice. You're a cat."

Sidhe finished the meal, and said, "Thanks for the tips. Being honest, I never expected you to help me."

She shoot him a lazy glance, saying, in a slurring way, "I hate your guts. That doesn't mean I will let you to be killed by some dumb mistake you would have done in dungeon."

He helped her washing the dishes, as he was washing, he heard her saying, "One person has done it already. Two will be too much."

As Sidhe was preparing to go back to his room, Naaza said, "Before I forget, next time, sharpen your sword."

Sidhe looked nonplussed at her, she had a content smile, then entered her room.

Next day, at time when roosters sing their odious song, Sidhe was in his room with Lord Miach. Who gave him back his sword, now sharpened with no rust left on it, and a large enough bag. Sidhe gave him 370 valis. He kept the rest, 150 valis.

He drunk a cup of coffee with a sandwich and left for the dungeon. He saw adventurers with sleepy eyes getting ready to leave too.

Some dwarves were drinking ale right in the morning; if they were humans this would have been a shocking thing to see. Dwarves have an innate resistance to alcohol, so you need industrial quantities to get one drunk, really drunk.

He entered the Babel Tower, he visited Misha who was sleeping with her head on the table, with a cup of, smelling the air, coffee. He knocked on the table. Misha jumped in fright, she rolled her eyes when she saw who done it.

Sidhe quipped, "I was supposed to be the scaredy cat."

She took a sip of the coffee, and tried to make the most blank face you could ever see, and failed miserably, looking like she was amused, she said, "Very funny."

He took the pouch with his money and put on the counter, saying, "Can I put this money in a personal account, not linked to the family's account?"

Misha took another sip of coffee and said, "Yes, but it would be a part of familia's account, only you will have access to it, but it would be under the authority of your familia. I can't explain it in plain terms, it's a complicated mess that I… kinda forgot."

Sidhe's ears were flopped down, what a great receptionist he got. Damned be his luck, saying, "Okay. Do I need to do something to open it?"

Misha took another form of document, then she wrote some stuff, when she finished it, she ran out of coffee, saying, "You need to sign here and here, and here put the familia's seal."

Sidhe did as he was said to, and said, "Goodbye Miss Misha."

Sidhe entered again, for the second time in his life in the dungeon. He looked at the rookie's hallway, he commonly heard battle sounds, clashing of metal and screams. A hellish music to the peaceful light blue walls.

He was aware who were the most numerous victims of the dungeon. The rookies. They were inexperienced, clumsy and not prepared. He could have easily lost his life yesterday. Today too. This time he was better prepared, and with a sharp sword.

He prowled through the hall, looking for any left goblin. It seems there are people who woke up even earlier, or maybe didn't leave at night?

A bipedal creature with a dog head jumped at him from the darkest parts of the hall, hiding behind a rock, he saw it too late. It was a kobold.

To his luck, he parried just in time an attack that was going to his throat, the spear rubbed the blade as it was going up. Sidhe did an angled slash, the kobold was protected by its hide. Still, the slash left a big cut mark on it.

The kobold howled. Multiple deadly blows were coming. Sidhe used at maximum his dexterity to evade the attacks. A thrust passed by his hand, leaving a scratch mark.

He got close, hitting the kobold's face, with the sword's pommel. Dazed, the kobold reacted too slow to an incoming thrust.

Leaving it with a grizzly injury to his stomach. It was losing blood, the kobold actions were losing steam. Sidhe continued to play with the monster, evading its attacks, not letting it leave. He saw the moment. One swift slash and the kobold lost its head.

He felt an exhilarating pleasure. He won. Again. He put his life on the table and won, he won for him, he won for his familia. He can see his dream to get Miach Familia out of debt. He will do it. He swears on Lord Miach that he would do everything possible to achieve his goal. Even if that means doing unsavory stuff.

He gutted the kobold, taking its magical crystal. The creature disappeared, leaving behind a claw, this was the only drop. He was disappointed. He put both, the magical crystal and the claw in the bag.

Sat for a minute to respire. Then continued his search, he made sure to not wander off the main path. As that meant death.

He stood in the shadows, not letting himself to be in light. It was better to not be seen by monsters or adventurers. Though, he may be too paranoid, who would want to kill a rookie.

Right next to him, a goblin formed from the walls. This time, the goblin had a better armour and a sword as a weapon. He heard footsteps from behind.

He bended down as a blade passed by his head. He was cornered by two goblins. He needed to get free from them. Fast.

He blocked one attack from the front goblin, then ducked at the incoming thrust from behind. He got with his back to the wall, and baited the attacks from the goblins. They hit the wall.

In a burst of speed he got behind the goblin that was trying to get him from behind, it wasn't able to react in time as Sidhe plunged the sword in its back.

Only one goblin remained, he watched it like it was a prey, and he, the predator. From what he saw, goblins were dumb.

The goblin closed the distance, and tried his defence. Seeing it couldn't get the upper hand, it took rocks from the ground and thrown them.

Sidhe covered his face, exactly what the goblin wanted, it jumped on Sidhe, hitting the hand that was holding the sword.

Sidhe lost his sword. With the goblin on him trying to bite his throat. Sidhe was struggling to get the goblin down. He saw its fangs glinting in the dark, yellow and stinking. Saliva was falling down on his body.

Goblin got near his face. Sidhe headbutted it. He broke the goblin's nose, blood was pouring from it. It loosen its grip on Sidhe, just enough for him to be able to reach for his sword and impale the green creature.

He got up, and cleaned himself from the dust and dirt. Then took the magic crystals, there wasn't any loot left, sadly; at least he escaped with his life. Just one more thing to have gone wrong, and he would have remained here, without breath and cold.

He killed two more goblins and one kobold, he got another claw from the kobold. He wondered if someone would want to buy them? He should gather them for the moment, he was not sure, but maybe the Guild buys them too.

He was famished, tired, wanting to sleep. Dungeoning was a hard work. Look, he only eat a sandwich in the morning, because… someone forgot to get more food, that someone being him.

He left the dungeon. Sold the crystals to Misha, sent 70% of the money to the familia's account, then kept the rest for him. 190 valis remained, he only kept 100 with him to buy a cup of coffee.

The rest he sent to his personal account. He walked on the Orario's streets. Paved, without blemishes, clean. The Guild took care of city, they even had lamps that worked with magic crystals.

He stopped in front of Hostess of Fertility, a pub known for good food, drinks and alcohol. He entered through the front doors. He was hit with a fragrant smell of fried meat, brewing coffee, and a stringy smell, that reminded him of Naaza's potions, coming from fruit liquor.

He sat at a table, his stomach growled, though when he opened the menu, and seen the prices, any thoughts of buying food disappeared. In no way he would pay such high prices for a simple pasta, or a piece of meat. No way.

He saw the price of a coffee. His heart was burning at the price, but he decided against his sound judgment, to buy one. While he waited for the waitress to come and take his order, he was thinking about his mistakes in the dungeon.

The first one was not paying attention to the surroundings, how could he have missed the goblin that pincered him, he heard it too late. The second, and the deadliest, was that he didn't have another weapon in case he lost his main one. Though this was explainable why. He didn't have the money.

He will buy a dagger at the first moment he got enough money. The last mistake was going without food. He could have been still fighting in the dungeon, yet he can't, as he is without energy, already.

How will he make enough money at this rate? The way to raise the speed of getting money, is to become a more powerful adventurer. Next day he will get food to fight for even more time in the dungeon.

A girl with blue hair and blue eyes came to take his order, he said, "One cup of Orario coffee, please."

The girl left to bring his coffee. Sidhe was musing what to do when he will get a bigger quantity of money, to buy a sword, a dagger or armour? All will be good decisions, the sword he have now was not good, just good enough to kill easy monsters, he will need to change it anyway in the near-future.

The dagger can save his life, if he had a dagger he could have saved himself today without needing to get lucky.

As for armour, it was the most expensive from them. It would be a live-saver. Yet it would lower his speed.

His thoughts were interrupted as his order arrived. He paid 70 valis for the coffee, the deepest parts of his body felt the pain of parting with the money. He took a sip, saying, "Bitter."