The Sanctuary (3)

'What now...' thought I as I sat beside the sleeping girl. I poked her cheek slightly to see if she was really sleeping or not. She let a slight groan out and turned away.

I let out a small chuckle at the cute behavior and let her sleep.

The hours slowly pass as the crystal lighting in the ceiling of the cave slowly dimmed down. I looked out of the window that was next to the bed and saw the neon glowing shrooms and plants illuminate the cave ever so slightly while motes of light floated around, creating a breathtaking scenery.

"I wish I have a camera, to capture this view."

After a few hours, I got bored and looked around the room, but as there was nothing there I just laid down trying to get some shut-eye. It was a very stressful day after all.

As I began to fall asleep I felt something grabbing my body.

I opened my eyes and turned around to see the veiled girl hugging me like a bodypillow while mumbling something in her sleep.

"Even in her sleep, she is causing me trouble..." muttered I as I slowly slithered out of her grasp. After minutes of trying to slither away, I finally got free, only to be grabbed again into an even tighter hug.

"Ugh, why is she so strong!" whispered I as she nearly crushed me with her bear-like hug. The more I struggled the tighter her grip became. "Her grip is even stronger than Sahra´s!"

Accepting my fate as her bodypillow I grimaced at the sleeping girl and tried to finally get some rest.

Meanwhile, a small smile could be seen on the girl´s face.

...

"Hey, wake up!"

"five more minutes..." grumbled I from the loud sound and turned away.

A girlish grumble could be heard as she shook me with her small hands, but as I still haven´t warmed up enough I felt lethargic and tired.

"let me rest some more my body hasn´t heated up enough..." mumbled I barely audible.

"Fine, you leave me no other solution." said the girl.

"Heatwave~," said the girl as an orange light shot out from her palm and hitting me.

Feeling the heat on my body I sighed in bliss.

"Haah~, how comfortable."

Getting warm enough I raised my body and looked at the girl and asked, "Why did you wake me up?"

"I want you to accompany me for a while."

"But I am supposed to wait here for Sahra..."

"She wouldn't be back till tomorrow evening," said she while walking towards the door. "Are you coming or not?"

"Yes yes," said I reluctantly after some thoughts. 'Well, I don´t have anything to do anyway, and exploring this town is much better than lazing around.'

...

"So where are we going?" asked I slithering next to her.

"Hmm, we need some herbs and potions, then we are getting you to tier 2. I can´t accept a weak monster like you to be Sahra´s spouse."

"Again, who are you to Sahra?"

"I will let Sahra tell you that,"

"Why?"

"Stop asking so much. You are getting annoying," said she with an annoyed tone.

"All right then. keep your secrets," said I while rolling my eyes.

So strolling around the monster town I saw many different stalls. We finally stopped in front of a wide tree that has a wooden door and a sign hanging above with a leaf on it.

Opening the door, the scent of herbs and medicine assaulted my tongue.

"Welcome customers, what can I do for you?" asked a beautiful dryad behind the counter.

"Four small health potions and two antidotes please." said the girl.

"Coming right up~," said the dryad cheerfully hearing the girl´s order, and went to the backroom to get our items.

Meanwhile, I looked around and could see many different kinds of potions, plants, powders, and many more unique stuff that I have never seen in my life, filling the shelves.

I was intrigued by all the different kinds of potions. One, in particular, caught my eye, it was a deep purple one, that had small swirling particles inside.

The veiled girl caught me staring at the potion and asked me, "Something caught your eye?"

"Yes... I don´t know why, but this potion looks... delicious" said I after a pause.

"Hmmm~," said the girl with a hum, "it´s a poison affinity elixir, quite an expensive one at that."

But before I could ask her more questions the beautiful dryad came back from the backroom with our items. "Here are your items, that will be 28 tier 1 crystal~" said the dryad with a smile.

The girl reached her hand into her rope and pulled out a small leatherback and laid it on the wooden table, before taking the items.

"Have a good day~" said the dryad while waving as we stepped out.

...

"So, where to now?" asked I while we walked through the town.

"To the pit," said she a little bit too happy. I could swear that she was grinning under her veil right now.

I stopped as she said that, "wait wait wait, the pit, the place where you fight to the death?"

"Yup exactly that one, don´t worry you are much stronger than most tier 1 monster here," said she while pushing me along.

"But there are also tier 2 monsters, right? How am I supposed to deal with them? I know how strong a tier 2 monster is and I am pretty sure I will be squashed in no time," complained I and tried to stop, but her monstrous strength just kept me pushing forward.

"You probably only saw Sahra´s stats, but she is kind of a special case. So don´t be a worm and snake up." said the girl with a slight snicker.

After a long struggle with myself, I agreed, "Fine I will do it..."

"Excellent!" shouted the girl "I will be making so much money out of it~" mumbled the girl.

"What did you say?" asked I with a blank stare.

"Eh, I said... emmm... you will be earning so much.... ehh... exp... Yes, exp! Heh heheh heh," said the girl with an awkward laugh while walking faster.

Even far away from the pit, I could still smell the lingering scent of blood. Reaching the fighting pit I could already hear the sound of cheering monsters.

"I will register you right now, so prepare yourself," said the veiled girl while practically sprinting away.

'I have fought many monsters already, a one-on-one shouldn´t be that difficult, right?' thought I as I tried to cheer myself up.

Looking down I could see an armored spider fighting against a red hobgoblin that was similar to the bluffing one I fought on the 2nd floor.

The spider was clawing and scuttling around the hobgoblin with extreme speed while slicing with surgical precision, leaving deep gashed all over the red hobgoblin, who could do nothing but swing his spear in desperation, only to miss every single time.

The spider retreated and watched the monster drop to the ground while panting and slowly succumbing to his injuries, while the spider came out unscathed.

The spectators cheered loudly.

"Hah, another win for the metal spider!"

"Shit, that damn hobgoblin lost!"

"Nice, 4 wins in a row!"

"Not bad, I think I will take this one under my wing..."

"Oh, what an incredible speed for a tier 1 monster!"

Hearing all the praises and shouts I could tell that the pit had many other uses than leveling up tier 1 and 2 monsters, it was also here for the others to earn some cores, learn from the fights and also find a suitable successor or companion they could groom and give a name.

The metal spider raises two of its long metal legs while clacking his mandibles, approaching his dead opponent he riped out his core and held it up high. The crowd broke out in shouts and cheers while the spider began to devour the dead hobgoblin.

"How brutal..." mumbled I as I watched the scene with a small grin, but quickly shook my head.

Looking back down I saw the spider waking out of the pit, leaving the half-eaten hobgoblin behind. Soon after the next two contestants entered the ring.

The crowd immediately began to mumble as the two monsters walked in, but all the attention was on the smaller one.

"What is a treeling doing here?"

"I thought they aren´t associating with everyone else."

"Quite rare to see a treeling here"

"Oooh, this will be an interesting fight."

"Ah, his opponent is so dead..."

_____

An: Should I start releasing advanced chapters on my P_atreon? I would release here as always but publish some advanced chapters there. I know I said, that I wouldn´t do it, but to earn some extra bugs, why not? It will be no different for the Webnovel readers, the only thing new is that you will have the option to have some extra chapters...