(Dungeon first floor, Zhenya POV)

*Grumble*

sitting in silence cursing I my luck as everyone around me decides to take a break to start eating and drinking.

In desperation, I look around for someone who might grace me with some food but it’s no use, half the group is giving me the stink eye and the other half seems like they barely have enough food for themselves and of course since there’s only enough for themselves they’re not going to share.

Well if that’s the case there’s only one person left I can pin my hopes on. Setting my sights on Virgil in hopes that he might have some spare food, but nope he doesn’t seem to have any food on him as he’s getting food donated to him from his fan club, really I don’t think he packed anything at all.

*Grumble*

“I swear why the hell does everyone have to start eating now!”

as the smell of food fills the area I find myself sharpening my sword on a small whetstone I brought from home, trying to take my mind off my grumbling tummy. But it’s no use every few minutes my mind wanders back onto the topic of food which of course reminds me that my stomach is empty.

“shit!”

My hand slips and I end up cutting myself on the edge of the blade, it’s not too deep at most a flesh wound, but it’s enough to cause a good amount blood to spill from the wound.

Well, today doesn’t seem to be my day, I should have some cloth in my rucksack so at the very least I don’t have to worry about blood making the sword slip out of my hand.

As I was about to dig into my rucksack with my other hand, a somewhat familiar voice rings out from behind me.

“Hey, you need some help? I can see that you have a large cut there, well that and you been radiating a pretty intense aura for a while staring at everybody with your stomach rumbling.”

Hm?!

it was the boy from earlier, the one with the big bag full jars, he was looking at me with a worried expression as he pulls a jar out of his bag, unlike the ones he used for sampling this one was shorter and made from clay and had a wide mouth which allowed one to fit their whole hand if necessary.

“this here is for the cut on your finger.” Lifting the lid up he showed me the contents in the jar.

It contained some healing salve, it was a bit worrying seeing its abnormal coloration, usually healing salves would have a greenish tint to it but this one was an orange color instead.

“Don’t worry about it, I used an assortment of ingredients to make my medicine different from the standard recipe that most people use” sitting down next to me he scoops up a bit of the salve with his finger and applies it to the cut.

For a few seconds, there was an intense stinging pain, but it quickly subsided, and the cut disappeared like it never happened.

Before I could thank him, I'm hit by a wave of hunger that was even worse than what I felt last, waves of pain had replaced the rumbling of my stomach, and in less than a second I'm on the floor doubling over in pain while clutching my stomach.

“Oh, I didn’t expect the side effects to be that bad so here have some” the boy passes me some food that he apparently had stashed away in that massive bag of his.

The meal was some dried meat and fruits, not a luxurious meal but for me it was a like a gift from above, As I start to chow down I take this chance to study my savior.

He was of average height, slightly smaller than me, also he had a normal build that lent slightly onto the fit side but nothing that compared to people like me that actively trained their bodies lastly would be his unusual blue hair color which I could only guess was not natural.

On the matter of unusual things, his leather armor seemed to be custom tailored, there were only a few pieces of reinforced leather to cover his vitals while all other parts of the armor were flimsy by comparison, it was made to with the intention to be as light and maneuverable as possible, another custom feature that was the shit ton of bandoliers that ran across his armor each holding vials and jars of filled with liquid of varying colors.

“Thanks …. Uhm Who are you?” once I finished scarfing down the rest of the food I tried to thank him but was reminded that I didn’t know what his name was.

“names Rudi, an apprentice alchemist, pleased to meet ya” he extends his arm out offering me a handshake.

“well thanks for the food and medicine Rudi, am Zhenya, an adventurer.” Accepting his handshake, I return his introduction in kind.

“no problem!” He sits up and tries to make a smooth escape by ending the conversation here and walking away, but I grab by the shoulder before he has a chance to make his move.

“Now what was this about unintended side effects?”

“nothing too big, really just a slight miscalculation that’s all.” He quickly responds with a half-baked excuse, but I wasn’t going to let get away after he made me go through all that pain.

I put some pressure into his shoulder forcing him to sit down again so we can have a nice chat about hos little miscalculations.

“sit. Talk. We just got to know each other so why leave so soon?” I try my best to do a menacing smile, more or less I try to make the same face ma does to pa when he gets caught doing things he shouldn’t be doing.

“Okay everyone break time is over let’s get started on clearing out the area of debris for a campsite and set the tents up.”

But it really wasn’t effective or long-lasting as Virgil killed the mood.

Eh, whatever when intimidation fails there’s always brute strength. I end up dragging Rudi along with me getting him to help.

“So, what was this about unintended side effects and what was with the instantaneous healing?” I pass him a question along with some rocks and sticks.

“Well first off like I said this medicine is my own design and the first of its kind!” he throws the debris aside in a grand manner. “unlike other medicines that may take hours or even weeks to heal wounds mine can heal small wounds instantaneously, this is a miracle product that can… Ouch!”

“enough of the boasting already, on with the side effects.” I throw a branch at him.

“Okay, Okay sheesh let a man have his moment” he starts to rub the place where I hit with the branch, damn I must’ve thrown it harder than I meant to.

“So anyways long story short without going into all the details, my medicine can heal wounds instantly by accelerating the natural regeneration of your body until the wound is healed unfortunately the energy used from your body is grossly disproportionate to the size of the wound”

Hmm if what he says is true….

“hey Rudi, you say the medicine heals the wound until its closed right?”

“yeah and?”

“what if the body doesn’t have enough energy for the wound to heal?”

“well if they don’t then their body tries to heal as much as possible before going into starvation, but really I’ve only seen this salve work with small wounds, there’s no effect on large ones.” he gives a shrug with a face that shows that he’s unsatisfied with the results of his creation, ending the talk about his medicine.

“anyways on another note, why are you on this trip anyways you’re an alchemist right? So why are you doing this training camp for adventurers?”

“This goes back a little bit, when my teacher told me to go here as a test, set up shop and see if can actually make it as a real alchemist, that and I suspect that they also want a pupil in this town to send them back some new materials.” there’s some rustling in a bush near us which draws both of our attention, causing him to pause for a second before continuing.

“So, I thought since there’s a training camp happening I might as well tag along to check the place out and gather some materials.”

“Hey, you over there, the one in the red hood that won’t shut up!” I wanted to squeeze Rudi for some more food information, but someone was calling for me.

“camps almost done so go get some more firewood, also take Virgil with yah in case something happens!” it was Sabastian this time sitting lazily around the newly built fire pit, most likely boasting to the others about his guilds achievements or something.

“What're you waiting for go!”

With that am off with Virgil, and of course, Rudi who am dragging along.

The moment we were a good way away from the camp, a chorus of howls blast out from every which direction with more and more joining in.

With the howling announcing their arrival, wolves saunter out of their hiding places surrounding us.

Looks like that monster in the bush before was a wolf, and by the looks of it came back with its pack, scratch that looks like it’s come back with multiple packs.

“looks like we're in for a fight.” Virgil seems confident that we can do this, pulling out a dagger out of his sleeve and getting ready.

“Yeah!”

“why am I getting dragged into this?”

“no worries Rudi after this we’ll split the spoil three ways”

******************************************************************************

(meanwhile)

“Some tea my dear Alice?”

“Master why did you summon a hat on top of yourself.” Meh, it was a woodcutters hat but that was the only hat I had so better that than nothing.

“presentation my dear Alice presentation”

Noticing Alice was almost out of tea, I have the big bad wolf refill Alice’s cup. It was lavender tea, took a while and a bit of work to dry them out in a few hours but a little mana goes a long way.

We were all sitting at a table in the center of the big bad wolfs boss room happily drinking tea, I changed the room to make it a bit more pleasant, less rotting flesh and old furniture, and cleaner more aesthetically pleasing furniture. A slight retouching really goes a long way.

I’ll change the room back once some makes it down to this floor, so, for now, this place will be my personal tea room!

I take a sip from my cup… Well, It’s more like absorbing the tea from my cup.

In any case, the tea was delicious.

Also, the company was nice, Alice is a nice listener and the big bad wolf I didn’t know when he became sentient. He’s probably growing quickly as a sentient being because he’s a boss monster, and an already pre-established character in little red riding also he has the observe skill that allows him to learn by observing others and copying what they do. So maybe he was always sentient to some extent?

Or maybe he’s just mimicking sentience by observing and copying how Alice and I act?

In any case, he’s not much for conversation at the moment, he seems to able to recite his lines from the story perfectly, but apart from that he only speaks in simple one-word sentences.

Despite him mostly eating rotten meat most of the time, well the only time he eats is during his boss battle, I had him pegged as a carnivore, but he seems to able to taste the subtleties of the tea.

The moment he took a sip of the tea it was like he came alive, energetically trying to give something like an review of the tea, but it was more simple things like “Tasty”, “Minty” and other words in the same vein, can’t really blame him for being excited since the only things he’s eaten is rotten flesh.

if we keep having tea here eventually he should learn to speak more fluently, as he observes and converses with Alice and me.

Maybe next time I can invite Red to the tea party to she must be awfully lonely standing out there alone with nothing to do.

******************************************************************************

(back to the fight)

“Look out!” I block a wolf that was about to maul Rudi, the wolf vicious clinging on to my blade trying it best to gnaw my face off,

“shit these things are rabid!” the wolf was lighter than I thought it would be considering its size, making it easier to throw it into another wolf that was preparing to attack.

Rudi follows up by throwing 2 flasks at the wolf pile, upon impact the vials break mixing together creating a sticky slime like substance binding the wolves together before hardening sealing their movement for good.

they started to flail around wildly trying to get out and at the same time try to bite at us, if this was an indication of anything it was that these wolves really want to kill us.

As the flailing slowly died down, I thought they gave up but that wasn’t the case, the wolves started to rip and tear at each other pieces of paper flying everywhere, tearing off their limbs until they were free of the slime that lathered the ground.

These weren’t animals for sure, these were things that were just imitating life, no creature no matter how ravenous they are would at least think twice before ripping their limbs off.

This was further supported when pieces of paper flew from seemingly nowhere attaching themselves to the areas that the wolves ripped up forming new limbs allowing the wolf to walk again as if nothing had happened.

“So, these things are closer to golems than they are beast, a very lifelike being but definitely an artificial one.” Virgil started to talk to himself before hatching an idea.

“Quickly find something to set these things on fire.”

“So, all we need to do is burn these pieces of sheets? I’ve got the perfect thing for that.”

He quickly pulls out two an insanely bright orange vial out.

“quick pour it on weapons!” Rudi passes me and Virgil the vials in the brief moment of rest we have after repelling an attack.

Pulling out the cork I dump the whole thing on blade setting it ablaze.

“how the…?”

“explanation later more burning!” Rudi, since he didn’t have a weapon continued to throw his concoctions at the beasts blowing them up and setting them ablaze, the fire eats away at them leaving only ash behind.

Not wanting to be outdone I also go on the offensive.

I lung at the wolf that was closest to me, it must’ve gotten overconfident seeing that they had the number advantage, stabbing at the wolf, the flaming blade pierces it skull with no resistance.

The wolf recoils back thrashing about paper flying towards it attempting to repair the damage but instantly turns to ash as the flames eats it away.

The other wolves start to charge in on me trying to cut me off from Rudi and Virgil.

In response I quickly swing my sword to my right flank whacking a wolf that was about to chomp down on me, the slash was clumsy though only leaving a shallow cut on the wolf, not deep enough for the fire to spread quickly enough to burn the wolf to ashes but enough for it to impair the wolf’s regeneration.

“Zhenya watch out!” Rudi. what?

“Argggggggggggg!” there’s a stinging pain, a wolf had clawed me in the back, my armor had lessened the blow somewhat but the wolf’s claw having ripped into the hood was now stuck in it somehow not able to rip through the whole way.

Am not given a chance to shake the wolf off, having my hands full as the wolf I whacked away charges at me, maw open unnaturally wide.

Lowering my stance to the point I could see the wolf’s underside I ready my sword for swift upward stab.

1… 2… NOW!

It leaps at me, jaw now tearing at the corners as it tries harder and harder to open its maw wider to the point am thinking it’s trying to swallow me whole instead of trying to take a bite of me.

Rising I stab upwards through the wolfs lower jaw and skewering the wolfs upper jaw effectively closing it.

I easily pull my sword out of the wolfs head thanks to the flames incinerating it.

With a little bit of precious time, I have before another wolf decides to attack I try to shake the wolf off, but it’s no use the wolf is so light that it’s hard to use the momentum that its weight would’ve provided to throw it off.

The wolfs claws, however, felt so real and dense it’s hard to believe that’s it’s made paper.

“Hold still!” Rudi, whose now knee deep in ashes of his foes, throws two vials my way.

…..

…

They look an awful lot like the ones he uses to burn his enemies, don’t they?

…..

…

.

Ah, shit.

…….

…..

….

…

.

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM”

The vials landed right behind me blowing up and sending out a tide of flames, but it doesn’t spread outwards but instead upwards creating a large pillar of flame.

“Thanks!” with a grin I backpedal towards the pillar only stopping when I hear the wolf shriek in pain as I force it into the flame.

Using the distraction that the pillar of flame caused I find myself back with Rudi and Virgil.

“welcome back.” Virgil is the first one to welcome me back, I would call him out for being so laid back during this situation but seeing the field of ash in front I can’t complain.

Before Rudi can open his mouth his face scrunches up.

“what’s wrong?” I ask not really understa-………… Ohhhhhhhhh yeah, we’re in the woods right now.

And we’ve been setting stuff on fire.

And Rudi just created a giant flame pillar.

IN. THE. MIDDLE. OF. THE. WOODS.

The flame pillar roars as it gluttonously swallows up everything in the area grass, trees, wolves, squirrels, birds, everything Growing in size and heat.

“RUN!” Virgil is the first one to take off as we follow.

We run in the direction of the campsite flames right behind us, the wolves running right beside us desperately trying to get away from the flames and all the while trying to get a nip of us while we run.

Dodging left, dodge right these wolves are really trying my patience, but my patience runs out when one bites me in the thigh.

THAT’S IT.

Shaking the wolf off, I then kick it into the flaming monster right behind us.

As the wolf is swallowed up, the monster roars alive with more vigor.

this caused some unforeseen consequences the wolf I kicked into the fire fed it a which made it grow slightly bigger, which caused the slowest wolf at the back of the pack to be unable to outrun the flame which than fed the flame to make it bigger which in turn caught another wolf and than another than another.

“shit, why me.” Today definitely isn’t my day, the flame wall is steadily catching up to us picking up speed with each wolf it consumes.

With the flame right behind us, with no way to outrun the flames, I see Virgil’s arms wrap around mine and Rudi’s waist before leaping through the flames head first.