I felt terrible.

The rush of adrenaline had made me able to escape the monster, but my whole body felt sore after it wore off. I laid on the ground, taking a short break.

Having sufficiently rested after a few minutes, I crawled from up from the ground, propping myself up with my hands. I stood up, groaning, my body still sore.

I looked before me, only to see a huge expanse of water before me, seeming to spread endlessly wide. The green waters seemed to sparkle under the glow of my lantern, a mesmerising sight. I had somehow ran all the way to this vast underground reservoir.

I was fascinated, wondering how such a huge body of water had formed in a place like this. I put my lantern close to the surface of the water, wanting to see if there was anything in it. I saw ripples pulse on the surface of the liquid, as if there was something moving in it...

"Splash!"

An ugly fish like creature about the size of a trout jumped out of the water, biting the lantern. What the fuck was that? I shook the creature from the lantern, watching it flail on the ground wildly. The aquatic monstrosity had a huge mouth with hundreds of tiny black naillike teeth, looking sharp enough to pierce through metal. It's head and body was very flat, with two dark beady eyes, almost unnoticeable on it's blackish body, the same shade as the rock that made up the ground. I assumed it's black colouration to be a camouflaging adaptation.

I took a look at my lantern after the bite, finding to my horror that there were clean holes in the glass where the teeth had suck in. I wasn't sure why the glass hadn't shattered, but this wasn't good. This would make the mana inside leak out quicker, making it use up crystals faster!

Damned fish! I swung the hoe at the head of the fish in anger, ending it's miserable life.

The red blood soaked the ground, reminding me of my hunger as the single berry wasn't very filling. I needed to cook it, or it wouldn't be edible. However, I didn't learn many fire spells. Flame dart wouldn't be hot enough nor last long enough to cook it and Flaming Weapon wasn't a directly used spell.

I racked my head and eventually thought of a solution.

I could use Flaming Weapon on a rock and put the fish on top! Searching for a suitable rock wasn't a fun task however; unlike the golem, I couldn't just break the ground for a suitable piece.

Eventually, I found a rather flat rock.

I slit the belly of the fish, emptying it's organs and the inedible bits, then put the creature on the rock. I then used Flaming Rock, enhancing the rock to set ablaze, cooking the fish somewhat after a period of time. Some parts of it were burnt and a little of it still looked raw, but beggars can't be choosers. My mana was almost emptied however, due to the double cost I needed to spend for all my spells.

I felt like life was being too unfair to me, giving me poor talent and even having to spend double the mana on every spell! At least the environment was rich in mana, allowing me to regenerate fast. My internal complains were interrupted by a familiar voice, just as I was about to take a bite out of my shoddy meal.

"What are you doing here?"

I turned my head, only to see the girl from earlier. My mind seemed to go blank. I wasn't sure what to say and asked the first thing on my mind after a few seconds of blanking out.

"Uhhhh..... You aren't angry anymore?"

Real smooth wasn't I? You shut up, I doubt you could do better facing a peerless beauty of your orientation, might you be male or female. Not to mention, I had never had experience talking straight to a girl, feeling embarrassed merely looking straight at her. I hoped I wasn't blushing.

The girl sighed.

"What's done is done isn't it? It was my fault for losing it in the first place."

"Uh, okay."

Some part of me was glad that she had calmed down. I tried not to stare too hard at her features, trying to focus on her nose. I didn't want to come across as being rude. She examined me, probably wondering why I was staring so intensely at her, then rested her eyes on the fish I held in my right hand.

"Why are you holding a dead fish?"

And that's the first thing she askes? I wasn't too clear what to say and stated the obvious.

"I was hungry."

She looked at me, as if trying to judge if she heard me correctly, then frowned in disgust.

"Ewww! How can you even stomach something like that?"

I'll admit, the fish did look pretty ugly, but it wasn't like I had anything else to eat! I wasn't about to complain to her about that however.

But to my surprise, the girl reached her hand into her pouch, rummaging for something. Holy crap! Was she going to actually offer me food? I wasn't sure what I'd do, recieving mercy from such a kind-hearted girl. She then took a block of golden metal out her pouch, dashing my fantasies and confusing me.

"Here, eat this."

She put the golden block into my subconciously stretched out left hand, and I could feel from the mana it emitted that it was a valuable metal.

What?!?!

I wondered if she was messing with me. However, her face looked completely serious. I stared at the block of metal and back at her.

"Uhhh... I can't eat this."

It probably wasn't the best response to a prank but I wasn't in a good state of mind, being distracted trying not to stare too hard at her. The girl looked exasperated.

"Why not?"

"Not edible."

She looked irritated, confusing me. Shouldn't she be laughing at this point after her prank?

"Which part of this is inedible?"

She took the metal back, and put it in her mouth. A strange metallic noise rang out as she took a bite out of it.

WHAT?!?!

I was dumbfounded, my jaw hanging open as I watched her chew up the remains of the metal.

"Uhhh... Are you even human?"

It was the first question that came to my mind, not a very polite one. I got a glare for that question, but did not get a answer. I felt regret at offending such a beauty, but it was too late. She had decided to leave, heading off in no particular direction. I suddenly thought of something to catch her attention.

"Wait!"

She looked over, annoyed.

"What is it?"

I decided to inform her of the Treknuken mining activities and the doom it would cause if unstopped. I didn't exactly think she was strong enough to stop them, but I wanted to spend more time talking to her. Pathetic wasn't I? But then again, she did show she was pretty strong by defeating those bats with such ease and falling all the way down the abyss uninjured.

"Oh! I was searching for them!"

Her face brightened up, much to my surprise. At least she wasn't irritated anymore. I might have wondered why she knew about them despite being new here, but like I said, I wasn't in the right state of mind.

"I can bring you to the pillar!"

I blurted out in impulse, but I wasn't actually sure if I could find the way back since I might not have ran in a very straight line on the way here.

"Yay!"

She gave a slightly childish cheer, fitting of her age. I felt uplifted simply from watching her cheer. At the same time, I didn't like this one bit. Wasn't I too easy to manipulate by appearance alone? I brushed the thought off, simply chalking it up to the lack of experience.

.....

I ate the ugly fish as I led her, and she tried not to look, seemingly disgusted by my action. Noticing her discomfort, I tried to finish it as quickly as possible. The fish was very chewy and a little salty from the reservoir's natural salts, not tasting too bad. I put the extremely sharp and hard skeletal remains into my storage bag.

Watching her hum in anticipation, I hoped I was actually leading her the right way.