Note to self. Add giant monsters to my list of terrors.

I’ve never ran this much from a chase. Often times, I was able to escape from my pursuers because I scouted or have knowledge of the area to make multiple escape routes. In this case, after I was teleported by unknown magic, I ran into a monster in an unknown area. I was grateful to pass by strangers I used as decoys and divert the Dinosaur’s attention off me.

Anyways, my rations are all gone. First things first, I need to secure something to eat before I get hungry. Who knows how long I would have to spend in this dungeon. If I recall, those armed people brought a carriage with them. If I could make my way to their belongings before them, I could possibly borrow some supplies.

With a goal in mind, I backtracked to the last location I spotted their caravan using the monster’s tracks. Since the trees were grown in a compacted formation, I decided to take on the higher ground in case I run into that Dinosaur again.

“Urk… really?” Then of all my luck, that oversized Crocodile, Platypus, Dinosaur thingy was also heading to the same direction.

I saw it point it bill in the air- possibly it has a strong sense of smell. It did make sense it was able to locate me because I was confident I escaped from its sight many times. Also, it seems the range is limited, judging the distance I am about 20 meters from it as oppose to below 5 when I hid from it.

Not only was the monster already by the caravan’s belongings, I spotted two armed men concealed behind bushes, eyeing the creature to leave their merchandises alone. Their red shirt made them obvious to the human eye, but they rubbed dirt on themselves to mask their scent.

I did the same.

That monster alone has changed so much of my plans. I’ll go ‘negotiate’ with them. I may need some of their things to get out of this forest.

I jumped down quietly, travelled around the beast and approached the two men. They’re more fixated on the monster rather than searching for their third comrade that got eaten by it.

But will they attack me?

This got me thinking, how strong are people in this world? If they have civilization and magic capable of defending themselves against unearthly monsters, I wonder what the average strength of an average person is. As for the guards back in the kingdom, I am sure each individual are stronger than me but using darkness as my weapon and because the King didn’t want me dead yet, I was able to use those advantages to win.

I am aware my lower capabilities do not surpass a normal guard that go through rigorous training and am not a hero.

And how strong is magic? How are they activated? The only spell I saw set off was by one of the people I was transported with. She mentioned [Earth Grasp]? It seems to be telekinesis to control the earth, which is damn useful. Like seriously, making things from the ground whenever you want. But what about the people in this world? How are magic casted? Does one recite the name of the spell automatically use magic or is there some unknown factor that requires the user to use it?

I pushed my palm towards the two armed men’s direction.

“Earth Grasp!” As expected after my chunibyo behavior, nothing came out. Good to know I’m not special. Am I missing a catalyst or something? Who cares, I don’t know anymore. I have no knowledge of how magic works in the first place.

On second thought, do I need to approach them? I felt an urge to throw a pebble to lure the monster towards them. Unfortunately, as far as I see it, I believe information is more valuable. Since I set foot outside the city unaware of the dangers, and my curiosity got the better off me and I immediately paid for it. If possible, I could use them to kill the monster it might be worth keeping them alive longer.

I readied my gun and a dagger behind my back.

“Hey.” I whispered from a safe distance.

“Oh, fuck-!”

“Kid… you scared the shit outta us!”

Honestly, I felt a tiny bit of joy startling them.

If I were to imply RPG terminology to the two men in front, ah who cares. I’m just going to name them based off their weapons. There is Halberd person and Swordsman. They both wear identical fur armor, except the Halberd person was given shoulder pads as the Swordsman has better wrist protection.

“You’re the one that lead it to us. Do you want us to kill you?”

“Got it, so bandits.” I nodded. “I do have a death wish but it’s postponed. Let’s skip the ‘I want to kill you part’ and have a temporary truce, yes? Good! Anyways, what are the chances you two could beat that thing?”

“You’re asking the impossible.” Halberd person growled. “Even with our third guy-, say where is he?”

I won’t say I’m responsible, so I pointed my finger at the Dinosaur.

“Damn.” Swordsman clicked his tongue.

“Do you know the way to get out of this forest?”

“Find your own way out.”

“I can’t. That’s why I’m asking you two.”

“Then why were you in a dungeon in the first place?”

I shrugged. “I’m a curious bastard. You seem to know the layout of this dungeon. While we wait for that monster to pass, don’t you mind telling what I should be looking for?”

Skip.

In short, every entrance into a dungeon sends you to a random location. Fortunately, there’s always an exit and that’s located at the deepest part of the dungeon. In this dungeon’s scenario, there are no floors but a wide area. It would be located in its center.

Another method is to destroy the core that fuels the labyrinth. If that was destroyed, the surrounding lands would revert to their origin. The suggestion is often ignored because the core is usually guarded and moved by the guardian of the dungeon said to be plenty times stronger than any monsters roaming around.

As that Dinosaur thing was already strong, I wouldn’t take my chances to try to fight my way out. I don’t even know the anatomy of it, like; how many hearts does it have or what it’s weak against.

“Okay, what’s a way to know if all of us are going towards the center?”

“We don’t. Our merchandise does.” Halberd person pointed to his wares hidden in the hole.

So slave traders. Typical world setting. I thought. “I see. Then good luck. I don’t want anything to do with that monster.”

“On second thought.” Swordsman grabbed me by the collar. “You could lure it away for us!”

My feet were lifted off the ground as I saw myself fly a meter in the air. Hey man, that’s not fair! You’re so asking for it!

“GwwwwwaaaaAAAAAHHHHHH!”

I slowly turned around to find that Dinosaur locked me in its sight. Threads of drool dribbled through its razor sharp fangs as it stared at me. Don’t stare too hard. I’m going to get a matador vibe on me.

But I’m too much of a trash coward to raise a red cloth and telling it to charge at me. I ran towards the people who threw me out.

They’re faster than me but I moved nimbly. Using this chance, I tossed my belongings aside somewhere in the cervices of tree roots. With the load off me, my body’s gotten lighter as I slowly caught up to the slave traders and the Dinosaur right behind me.

I flipped on the strobing light function on my phone, shining it towards the monster. It doesn’t seem to like the flashes and steered off to the side. I moved away from the direction it turned towards, allowing me to gain the maximum distance and quickly leaving its area of detection.

“He used some weird magic to change the Drake’s target to us!”

“Screw that, I’m not going to die here!” Swordsman made a curt left turn, leaving Halberd person alone being chased by the Dinosaur.

He wasn’t just trying to leave, he searched and had nerves to swing his weapon at me. I barely dodged it, seeing he ambushed me so suddenly. Since my phone still had 5% battery life left, I shined a light at him and made him missed his second swing which allowed me to quickly stab him near the ribs with my dagger.

“Ack! Dammit!”

Because of the leather armor he wore, there was a set of chainmail hidden underneath that managed to save him from my dagger reaching his vitals. On the other hand, I’m only wearing cloth. Every blow he lands on me is considered fatal.

I’m much more proficient using a knife but unfortunately, I made a mistake leaving my dagger lodged where I stabbed him. Thankfully I still had my switch blade, but the reach is inferior than my dagger and his sword. The metal is also thin, meaning if I attempt to parry an attack, the blade would break.

This is fun. It’s challenging just the way I love it but…

Do I use it?

My hand floated over the revolver holstered behind me. I only have 3 bullets left and I may need them to dispatch the Dinosaur or the Guardian of the dungeon. How much damage could a shot do to that monster?

“Curse you and your magic!” Swordsman rubbed his eye, then aimlessly swung towards my direction.

I’m no expert in martial arts but when an opponent panickily lashes out like that, they leave a bunch of openings. Since his vision was still recovering, I ducked behind and found a spot for my trusty knife into the side of his neck. I found, but I couldn’t quite kill him.

Swordsman wildly slashed around and forced me back. Seems to me it isn’t easy to kill someone in this world. I gave up on the idea to fight in a fair duel but when do I ever fight fair? I ran away to snatch a coil of vines and small stones to make an improvised bola. For the sake of safety, I climbed into the tree’s branches before I began crafting. It was crappy, just three stones tied onto the end of a three-way rope.

“Where are you!?”

“If you say Marco, I’ll reply with Polo!” I shouted, turning his head to me.

In an instant, I hurled the bola at him, succeeding to trap his upper half. Then Swordsman froze as I jumped on him with my knife in his neck. He struggled violently to knock me off but I quickly grabbed his head and drove my blade further in. I stretched his chin up and pushed my weight against my switch knife again until my hand was slick with his blood.

I heard him gurgling blood from his mouth but the signal for me to release him was when his body limped. Before I release him, I put my fingers on his pulse and determined he was dead. As I casually moved back, I plucked my dagger from his armor and used his fur armor to wipe his blood off my equipment.

See? A clean kill and not a single drop of blood on my coat… other than my hands. Though I was disappointed I didn’t get to torture him for what he did to me. I needed his corpse to get rid of the Dinosaur.

Where is it anyways?

It was still chasing after Halberd person. While the monster was preoccupied with chasing him, I moved Swordsman corpse to an ideal spot to prepare.

Here’s what I learned about the Dinosaur:

1. Powerful sense of smell, able to distinguish things in a short radius

2. Incredible endurance

3. Absolutely hates strobing lights.

4. It’s fast as hell (That’s given)

My phone has about 4% battery left. It should have about 15 minutes of life I could guard myself using its light. That means my life is guaranteed to be safe until my phone dies out. It’s always against time isn’t it?

Using Swordsman’s sword, I cut off a limb from his body and used his weapon to skewer it above a campfire. Hopefully the scent of burning flesh would attract the Dinosaur.

Next, I grabbed the rest of the bottles of Dragon Spittle from my bag, which I didn’t think I’d use so fast and strapped them around Swordsman’s corpse. I think I reserve three bottles just in case. Just a hunch.

I bought about ten from Dane and that made my wallet light even if he did give me a discount. But before that, I looted the fur armor and wrist protectors. Using my all multipurpose shovel to chop a few thin logs, I finished preparations to present the corpse into a delectable scarecrow.

Then there’s the matter of the merchandise the slave traders mentioned. I didn’t see any keys on Swordsman so I’m assuming Halberd person has it. Hopefully…

Now, where O where is-.

“ARRRGH!” Halberd person flew at me. He landed onto his back and quickly curled up in a fetus position to endure the pain.

I have to applaud him for running that long. Are all the people in this world more physically enhanced or was it because of fear that motivated him?

And lucky~. I spotted the keys hanging from his belt but as I reached for it, he grabbed my wrist tightly.

“Dammit kid…! If I… die, you’re going… down with me!”

“Not that I mind but I’m not exactly into vore.” I calmly said. “But I think you’re in no position to demand anything, don’t you agree?”

I sprung my blood-soaked switch knife and threatened to gouge his eyes. That’s a great expression my dear friend! It’s a pity my phone’s almost dead that I couldn’t take a picture of it.

“I’ll give you two options because I’m a benevolent piece of filth. Either you can join that swordsman to be monster bait and I can take the keys or do as I say and we can take down that Dinosaur or whatever you call it.”

“Fine. Do you have any bandages?”

“I think I did enough by sparing your life don’t you think?”