After a good night’s rest, I awoke to Melissa, tightly clinging to me in her sleep, claws tightly digging into my sides. This happens far too often, but how on earth am I supposed to deal with it? If acting harshly will mean losing her devotion, then not only would I lose a useful pawn, but she could shed light on some of my activities that the others don’t know about. Like the case with that unpleasant innkeeper.

I looked down at her content face, lips curled into a smile as she did her best to further nuzzle her way into my side. This is really irritating; I’m a man who enjoys personal space, and having it invaded so frequently is starting to wear my patience. I decided to do as I usual do and just shoved her off the bed. She hit the floor with a loud thud, before waking up confused and groggy. It was at this point that I noticed an owl on my nightstand giving me an accusing stare. What?

…Nothing

Serenity removed her gaze from me and started to ignore me. Melissa was still on the floor attempting to get her bearings. She had been surprised last night at Serenity’s addition, but quickly took a liking to her. Unlike the case with Hina, Serenity allowed Melissa to touch her, which brought a surprising amount of joy to young Melissa’s face at the time. Well she’s still practically a child after all. After explaining to Melissa how she fell of the bed after she had snuck in during the night, she was more occupied blushing than questioning why she always woke up in the exact same way.

It was still early and the sun was only just beginning to rise. Outside of my window I could see that the sky was a tad more cloudy than usual, so it would probably rain later on in the day or at night. It didn’t matter though, I’d be in the dungeon for the majority of the day anyway. Unfortunately I would be accompanied by Hina, but it was still a good opportunity to make some money from magical beast materials; there’s a silver lining to every cloud; every rude, annoying cloud.

I made my way downstairs after getting dressed and gathering my equipment. Handkerchief, check; rapier, check; trusty pocket knife, check; and it seems I’ve got all the other stuff too. Surprisingly when I found my way to the lobby area, I was the first down. It was surprisingly refreshing to be the first one to arrive. Lately it felt as though I was always arriving last. Punctuality is something that is rather important in my opinion.

Back during training, if you weren’t punctual enough then you’d miss out on teaching displays where they taught you how to perform the activity in question correctly. Some kids back then missed the displays entirely, something to do with a mental breakdown. Education is important however! They were forced to watch later, I remember hearing some had to have their eyes held open to make sure they actually watched. I still to this day can’t understand why they wouldn’t want to watch; the displays always fascinated me as a child.

After reminiscing on fond memories for a while, the next one came down the stairs. Much to my dismay it was Hina, and of course upon seeing me she displayed an irritated and disgusted expression. I decided to set my beaming smile to maximum and then cheerily called out to her.

“GOOD MORNING!” I called, voice filled with energy.

She flinched at the loud greeting, and decided not to reply, and instead turned away from my smile with a grimace, ignoring me. There’s really only so rude you can be for you can’t blame the other person for burning you to death you know. That kind of attitude just doesn’t go in the real world, unless your hero of course, and unfortunately she is. Maybe I can talk her into getting some manners during today’s dungeon trip, heh- DAMN IT!

I looked over to Serenity sitting on my shoulder. I know I told her to keep me in check but we’re not even in the dungeon yet. No need to cause unnecessary damage to my ear drums. I don’t want to end up hard of hearing at such a young age. In fact, if I couldn’t hear then no more beautiful tunes or screams of burning heretics… I couldn’t help but shudder. Serenity from now on don’t screech in my ear, just peck me or something.

… Fine

Crisis averted. With that done, I noticed that Hina had been giving me strange looks. What’s with her? She eventually turned towards my direction and walked up to me with a determined expression and began to speak.

“Look. I don’t like you, and you don’t like me. You know that if anything happens to me in that dungeon you’ll get in trouble right?” she asked.

Is she worrying for her own safety? What a self-centred person. Shouldn’t she put apologising for her rudeness before all of that? Didn’t she ever learn any manners? I decided to give her a response by nodding in affirmation in addition to the trademark smile, which caused her to once again grimace. Looks like she’ll never improve.

“Okay, good. Let’s just go to the dungeon today and do what we need to do, no personal feelings coming into play. I’ll treat you like a companion and you do your job and protect me.” She said.

Do my job and protect her in exchange for her treating me as she should do… This one really irks me.

“Of course. No matter how you see me, I would never allow any harm befall you. I swear this in the name of Sol.” I replied.

After making a pledge in the name of Sol she seemed to relax, clearly reassured that I wouldn’t do anything to her. Hehehe… she must have read an article on how inspectors were the most devoted of all the professions within the church. I could break a pledge like that in a heartbeat.

After a few more minutes passed, everybody had arrived down in the lobby, fully geared up and ready to go. Yuki appeared to hold boundless quantities of excitement that almost radiated off of him, while Rin was the far incarnation of anxiety, constantly being reassured by Catherine who walked by her side.

The trip to the dungeon was surprisingly short; only a half hour walk from the city gates. The consensus among us was that we’d each walk our own paths and then meet up outside the dungeon again at the end of the day and compare progress. The dungeon entrance was just a small rocky out cropping on one of the numerous grassy hills in the area and looked like a natural rock formation until you saw the tiny inscriptions covering everything and the large dark hole marking the entrance. Adventurers were littered about here and there, each preparing to enter the dungeon. It was relatively early though, so there weren’t as many around as you’d typically see.

The dungeon had relatively simple layout according to the information Catherine had managed to gather the other day, and was a regular layer by layer set up. The uppermost layer had extremely weak monsters of F rank and their strength would increase as you go down. Dungeons were often explored for the treasures of old they often hid, but this one had been well ravaged by the hordes of adventurers who came before. Some speculate that there are lower floors than to what they’d managed to explore so far, but after about 2 decades of no progress finding deeper floors, it’s been designated as a fully explored dungeon. Most adventurers frequenting the place were here for training.

I couldn’t help but feel put out that any chance of stumbling across treasure was next to nil; we should’ve gone to one of the newer dungeons. Sure, they’re more dangerous since they’ve not been fully explored, but if you think about the rewards, then I’d be willing to sacrifice a few of my companion’s lives.

Once everything was settled, and each of the pairs were ready we set off, entering the dungeon. As soon as Hina and I entered, the area became ridiculously dark, so to start off with I created a glowing sphere of light to illuminate our path. Hina appeared to be very nervous as we walked along the tunnel, the craggy rock walls, absorbing all heat. Of course, her anxiety is a granted; her weapon is a bow. In close quarters like these, she’s completely vulnerable to surprise attacks. In all essence, she’s completely reliant on me. Well, when we get to the lower floors anyway. I don’t think a low rank magical beast like a slime, bat or rat could cause her too much trouble.

*splat*

I just stepped in something. I looked down to see my first kill of the dungeon; I’d successfully stepped on the core of a small, regular slime, shattering it. My boot was unfortunately covered in its juices as a result. Dammit, that’s disgusting. After cursing internally at the event, I wiped of the slime juice on the nearby wall. Aren’t these monsters kind of a joke? I started to pick up the pace, causing Hina some trouble to keep up. When are we going to get to a lower floor?

Head in that direction

I turned my head to Serenity, and noticed she was looking into one of the side paths of the main tunnel. Why?

The natural magical energy density increases in that direction.

Oh! That means more energy seepage, which means more magical beast; Serenity you’re a genius! Over the next few hours of coming across low level magical beasts like rats, bats, snakes and other small creatures we eventually started to make our way deeper down into the dungeon. Before we left the starting spot, Catherine had given each of us a tool used by adventurers to judge a beast’s strength; they were small stones that would light a different colour depending on the strength of the beasts in the vicinity. Truly a useful little gadget.

We finally encountered some wolven magical beasts; they were unlike the ones I’d encountered in the forest before I met Serenity. These ones were the size of small dogs, and had pitch black fur and red eyes. They were low C ranked magical beasts. When I first spotted them, what surprised me at first wasn’t the impression of strength each individual gave, but the vast number of them that came. 10 of them to be precise. When Hina, became aware of their presence, the stupid girl let out a shriek, stumbling backwards and the little black wolves darted forwards, some running along the roof or walls, their claws digging deeply into the hard rock. I really don’t want those claws digging into me.

It had been a long time since I’d last had a decent fight, so I decide to just test out my physical abilities. The regular and spirit magic can be saved for stronger beasts. While the little wolves were relatively fast for a beast at their strength, their movements were still easy to follow. All 10 of them were focused on me, probably wanting to take out the larger threat first.

As the first lunged at me, I simply side stepped the beast, dodging by a small margin, as I whipped my blade across its side. The wound was only meant to be superficial in order to anger the wolves into attacking in a blind rage, but I was surprised to see the little wolf neatly bisected, blood showering onto Hina behind me. I don’t remember being quite that strong. Well there’s still a fight to get to, so those questions can be left for later.

Fully taking advantage of my surprising strength, I casually kicked the next wolf that lunged into the craggy rock wall behind it. It hit with a loud thud, and crumpled to the ground, and although not dead, at the very least severely injured.

The wolves began to take a more cautious approach, and began to attack in pairs, aiming for different spots on my body. Unfortunately, despite the decent tactics, they weren’t fast enough and a few exchanges later they were all dead on the ground, bisected, pierced or broken. That felt a bit too easy. Serenity?

It’s because of the presence of natural magical energy in your body. As your skill to control magic increases, so does the amount of natural energy your body can take and use, a side effect being that it seeps into your bones and muscles, strengthening them.

Oh! That sounds very convenient. Do all spirit contactors experience this?

Some do, but to a lesser extent. The potency of the natural energy I absorb and refine in your body is far stronger than that of regular spirits. I must warn you though, there is a small possibility of aesthetic side effects.

Aesthetic? You mean my looks will change? I’m not going to turn out like a shadow am I? Those guys are horrific to look at.

No. Shadows don’t have anything refining the energy they absorbed and it doesn’t enter their magical stores, but only enters their physical body. As such, shadows gain high strength and speed in addition to physical deformities. The energy your body is absorbing is refined by me and done so in far smaller, less frequent doses.

Well that’s a relief. But what kind of changes are you talking about then? There was no need to scare me like that. I felt extremely relieved that I wouldn’t end up like one of those things, but was also curious as to how I might change.

Spirit contractors, if they experience aesthetic changes, they tend to take after their spirit. In your case the most you can expect is paler skin and darker hair and eyes, due to my humanoid form.

Why even mention it then? Serenity you don’t have to cause such a panic.

I just felt you should know.