The fifth floor of the mine was as dark as the floor above it. The footsteps of seven people echoed throughout the tunnels of the mine and the lamp I held fought against the darkness that obscured the tunnels. I passed the lamp to Takana and drank water to satisfy my parched throat. As I drunk, I longingly remember the cool breeze above, hoping this floor would grant us one but sadly, their temperature couldn’t differ more from each other.

After the training of Elird, we wanted to put it on a test. The guild had a bounty on one of the monsters that inhabited the mine. They were the ones responsible for overseeing the mine, like Pokkun from Prosk. I didn’t know if we had the capabilities to defeat those monsters but scouting it first then accessing it was how we do our battles and so far, we managed to survive.

“Why is it so hot in here?” Takana groaned, the dryness brought by the humid wind made Takana’s mouth wrinkled.

“Stop complaining, you damn monkey.” Risa said as she leisurely relaxed on Merry’s back. I took a glance at Fiss, who still looked like she hadn’t gotten used to Risa’s attitude because of Risa’s harsh words, often to people older than her.

“Shut up, stupid kid,” he then turned towards me. “Why is that kid still here, huh?”

“There’s nothing I can do. She just won’t listen.” I sighed.

“It’s better when Risa’s here,” Fuyuki went to Risa. “There’s another cute girl! And with Fiss, there are five cute girls here! Don’t you think so, Terrin?” Fuyuki grinned at me.

Before I could speak, Takana had a question to ask. “Why didn’t you ask me? I do think all of you are beautiful except for the kid. The kid’s dumb.” Takana looked at each and one of them. Quite a great move.

“Nobody asked you.” Merry replied coldly. I didn’t know if it was only me but her gaze towards Takana seemed to get colder.

“Yeah, nobody asked you!” Fuyuki shouted while Kihana shyly looked away. You could see the difference between the both of them as clear as snow but it was nice to see them always getting along.

Wordlessly, Risa got off of Merry. Her sudden action turned the heads towards her as she fluidly walked towards Takana. Confusion formed on Takana’s face as he looked downwards towards the unusually quiet child. “I told you not to call Risa a child!” she then punched Takana at his crotch. His crotch didn’t have any armor.

Takana fell on his knee. He didn’t scream or anything, he just fell, the thud was as quiet as he was. After a few moments, the screaming came with tears falling on his cheeks. A man, twice as big, wearing his armor and his shield on his hand got defeated by a child.

“Where are you going?” Elird asked, the bafflement on his face was clear. The girls, except for Kihana, started to already walk. Even for my standard, that seemed too much but it was Takana, so maybe he deserved it.

Well, at least Kihana is there for him.

We continue to walk through the seemingly lifeless dark tunnel. Takana held his crotch to comfort his friend while walking besides Kihana. Kihana checked up on him and probably it was an outcome Takana didn’t liked but certainly one that he wasn’t going to pass up as suggested by his face while talking to Kihana.

But if I had answered Fuyuki’s question, I’d pretty much say the same; they were all pretty. If by order, it would be like this: Risa, Fuyuki, Merry, Kihana and Fiss. Of course, the order didn’t matter. Though I was not a lolicon, I find Risa absolutely stunning. I repeat, I wasn’t a lolicon. Fuyuki was as pretty and bright as the day I met her. Merry and Kihana looked pretty while Fiss had the air of a wealthy person that made her sometimes looked unapproachable but she was indeed charming especially towards Elird.

After a while of walking, in the distance, we heard the sound of clanking. At the end of the tunnel, a dim crimson light plastered on the wall blinking as silhouettes passed by. I told my team to stay put as I checked it out.

So this is where the heat is coming from…

At the end of the tunnel there was a huge dome-like space. I moved around as quiet as I could be, hoping not to be seen or heard but when it came to watching and hiding in the shadows, I was as confident as Takana to girls. Inside were carts full of raw minerals being smashed, grinded, made into an ingot and smelted in what seemed to be a furnace or a blast furnace. The workers ranged from normal size kasaks to big and muscular kasaks, the normal size were the ones who carried and brought the raw materials while the muscular ones were the smiths, though the role of security laid on the both. After the process, the carts went through a slanted well-lit tunnel that led most likely to the lowest floor.

I returned to my party and told them what I saw.

There was information at the guild that stated not only did the monsters occupied the lower floors of the mine, they extracted the minerals and used it for their own. Additionally, the monsters had made the mine inhabitable, if they permanently wanted the humans out the mine, they needed the supplies, although we had no idea where they kept their supplies or where they even get their supplies. The guild described a vast field where they farmed their foods, though we hadn’t seen it yet.

But how do they know how to turn the raw materials into finish products? There must be someone intellectual enough to know the process. Although they are monsters, that doesn’t automatically mean we’re intellectually superior.

I took out maps that I bought at the guild yesterday. There were three and it contained a rough outline of the mine such as where the tunnels go. The maps were separated maps of the fourth, fifth and sixth floor, each of them made by official workers who dug the mine. The first, second, third floor was where humans mined raw materials, with the third floor being heavily guarded. The fourth floor was a desolate wasteland where a few monsters roamed and occasionally mined. Think of the fourth floor as a border separating the third and fifth floor.

But what is our true goal here? Our goal is to see if Elird can fight without being irrational. But why am I thinking of going down the sixth floor? Is it not enough to just find a kasak and let it fight with Elird?

“Hey, Terrin,” Takana called out. “When are we going? I’m tired of waiting!”

“Huh?” I blinked.

“Didn’t you hear me? When are we going? We’ve been here for a while and it’s too hot!”

But there might be new information that we could provide for the guild. It’d be killing two birds with one stone. There should be a hole to the sixth floor near here.

As I determined the next course of action, Takana knocked on my head. “Hello? Terrin! Let’s go already! It’s too hot here! Look at my face, there’s a lot of sweat!” Takana shoved his face in front of me. Just like he said, his sweaty, soggy face rained down like he just took a bath.

I sighed and swipe my forehead. It was indeed hot and from the looks of it, my party was in a hurry to leave. “All right, let’s go. There’s a hole near here that leads down the sixth floor. Are you okay going down deeper?” I asked Fiss and Elird. They both nodded.

*

There were holes inside the mine that the monsters dug. They used it as an easy way through the upper floors during their early days here. Luckily, Takana, who was the biggest person in our party, could fit in, so we didn’t have to think of other ways.

There was a rope tied on a rock nearby to descend to the lower floor. Other wanderers must have been here and used this.

“I’ll go out and try it first.” I said.

“Be careful.” Merry said worryingly.

“Don’t take too long, Onii-chan.” Risa said.

I grabbed the rope and threw it below. I pulled it to see if it wouldn’t break and it didn’t. It looked a bit worn out but it was still usable, though I couldn’t imagine how Takana would fare.

“Here I go.” I said. “If I pulled the rope twice, it means it’s okay to come down. If once then there’s something wrong and don’t come down yet, okay?” everyone nodded. I held the rope tightly, descending to the dark hole with a lamp strapped on my back.

After thirty seconds of slowly descending, I could finally see the ground. I quietly step on the ground and light the way with my lamp. I quickly took a look around and so far, I hadn’t seen anything that would pose a threat. I listened to my surrounding and heard nothing, only the breeze of the cool wind slapping on my face. It felt good, though.

I lightly pulled the rope twice, hoping they would be able to notice it. Then the rope wiggled around. After another thirty seconds, I saw Merry, with Risa on her back. Additionally, Merry carried a part of Takana’s armor with her.

“He’s afraid the rope would rip, so he asked me and Elird to carry one.” Merry explained.

“That damn monkey.” Risa puffed her cheeks. “Couldn’t he just jump down with his full armor? Surely, he wouldn’t die from a height like this. Besides, Kihana is there to heal him. Risa doesn’t like it when they make Merry do the hard work.”

Huh, she sure had taken a liking at Merry…Still I think if Merry didn’t have Risa on her back, she could just jump down and take no injury.

After they all came down and preparing ourselves, we moved forward. We were in a tunnel but it was short one as we could see the other end of it. There was light, so we weren’t sure if it was safe or not. As we came out of the tunnel, we prepared ourselves for the worst.

When you think of a mine, it would be under the mountain, where the only light source could be from magma or an artificial one not a gigantic crystal that hanged on the ceiling of the sixth floor, coloring the entire place with a touch of green.

The anonymous refreshing breeze of the wind made the acres of tall plants swaying back and forth peacefully. Not only that but types of domestic animals wandered the field, making me a bit envy for how careless they were. The guild was right. There was a vast field in the sixth floor and it looked incredible.

“Whoa, this looks peaceful…” Takana said as he breathed in the refreshing air.

“Wait, you have feelings like that, Takana?” Fuyuki mocked.

“Of course, I do!”

After everyone had a laugh, we continued to explore the vast field. Of course, we stayed vigilant.

How does this plant grow? Is it because of that crystal? But they need water, right? Well, it is a mountain, maybe there’s a small body of water here.

“Terrin,” Merry, called me, her voice a bit tense. She then took a glance at a direction.

“Yeah,” Out of nowhere, a group of kasaks patrolled around. We immediately hide within the plants, it was thick enough to hide us.

“What do we do?” Takana asked, his voice became serious.

“We wait for them to pass. For now, let’s go the other way.”

“I don’t think that’s possible.” Fuyuki said. She then pointed at another group of kasaks.

All of a sudden, there was a lot of kasaks patrolling around.

What the hell? Where did they come from? Why wasn’t I or Merry able to notice them?

Whatever it was, we just had to stay put for now. But it seemed even that we wouldn’t be able to do.

One of the animals was nearby and it came close to us. Takana tried to make it go away but it wouldn’t listen. It might have smelled the lunch we had with us. We gave it a few but when the animal finished it, it roared loudly. To my dismay, a group of kasak checked it the animal.

This is bad.

“Everyone, prepare yourselves. We’re going to go back and make a run for it.” normally, we could take care a bunch of kasaks but firstly, Risa was with us, I didn’t want to endanger her. Secondly, we were inside uncharted territory, who knew how many enemies were here? Lastly, they were too many. Just too many.

Everyone nodded. When the kasak came to check the animal out, they saw us in the plants. We immediately killed them but we couldn’t get one as it screamed for help.

All those that could hear immediately went to check what happened then they saw us, with their unintelligible high screams, we made a run for it. My party ran fast, as most of the times we fought, we pretty much ran. Getting there didn’t pose a problem, it was how to get up there. Only one could climb the rope at a time.

Damn. Should we have looked for another exit first before going? No use thinking about it now, I just have to run.

When we made it back to the tunnel, Fuyuki climbed the rope. Takana readied himself to defend. Merry transformed into her beast-form.

“Merry, you’re a beast…?” Fiss said as she got scoop up by Merry, not only her but also Elird. Merry essentially carried three people as she jumped around the ledges of the walls.

“Terrin, I’ll be right back!” Merry shouted. Merry was fast but it would still take time and the monsters were already here.

Right now, there were only two people that could fight: Takana and I. Even if Takana could tank it through the narrow tunnel, the enemies had crossbows, it would be hard for him to defend it.

I have to make a choice.

“Takana, I’ll leave them to you!”

My party is important to me. I don’t want them to get hurt if I can do something about it.

I charged towards the enemy, nimbly dodging their attacks. I got to the end of the tunnel and ran towards the open field, making sure that the enemies followed me. Though a few stayed, Takana could take them.

I used two smokebombs to confused the enemy as I ran away.

I’m better if I work alone. I won’t die from something like this. I thought as I hid in one of the thick plants.