Chapter 7: But... My Joints Hurt...

Dust cautiously walked back to this floor’s entrance, the passage they had emerged from when they entered this floor, and brought Lilith to the place where they had camped at before.

He went to the lake and drank some water, thinking about the things he could do to get stronger, ‘This dungeon can be a good opportunity for me to improve…’ Dust thought back to the types of monsters that ran past them when the bear’s roar shook the forest.

One monster was a beetle the size of a carriage, a few green wind wolves and lesser demonic foxes passed by them as well. He could also vaguely recall a monster that looked like a brown eagle, he couldn’t discern its actual appearance though, as the thing moved too quickly.

Dust guessed that there were probably more monster types in this dungeon too, and figured that the only monsters he could take on were spiders that weren’t in large groups and individual wind wolves. Maybe a lesser demonic fox if he had luck and/or the element of surprise on his side.

As he pondered about his next course of action, Lilith who was beside him woke up. Her face was still a bit paler than usual and her eyes were unfocused.

She blinked multiple times and slowly drove away her grogginess. She frowned and looked at her hand, sighing and then slipping the same metal ring from earlier over her index finger.

“..I won’t be able to use mana for a few days,” She said, “I exhausted too much mana in the last fight and forcing myself to use magic again would only lead to problems in the future,” As she spoke, she looked at Dust with a grim expression who responded by giving a slight nod.

“Hey, Lilith… since you won’t be able to use mana for a few days, can you, uh…” Dust started, but his voice trailed off around the end as he thought about how he should ask Lilith for help regarding his current lack of strength.

Lilith saw his hesitation and said, “..Yes? What is it?”

Dust grit his teeth and stood up, standing in front of her sitting figure and bowing his head, “..Can you help me get stronger?”

At this, she smiled faintly and stood up, stretching and yawning slightly. Lilith motioned for Dust to follow her as she headed back to the dungeon’s forest area. Here, she asked Dust to help her collect a few decently sized branches from the trees nearby and made him carry it on their way back to the underground lake.

There, she sat down and brought out a small knife. Lilith began to carve the branches into wooden swords and handed Dust another knife so that he could do the same.

They invested a couple hours doing this until they had two sets of crude, but durable swords. Lilith had also told him balance and shape his swords to his preference, so that it would be easier for him to wield.

By now, Dust already knew what Lilith was planning and for some reason, cold sweat rolled down his back. The slight smile she constantly wore sent shivers up his spine as they finished carving the wooden swords.

Dust had created a simple longsword that was designed to be more focused on slashing rather than thrusting. He felt pretty good about how he managed to create a good balance in its weight too.

Lilith meanwhile, held a wooden version of the sword she usually used, the details and engravings in its body were missing, but it was a decent copy.

The carving process already tired Dust out quite a bit, but he knew that he had to continue. He stood up and stretched his body, removing the soreness in his legs that was caused by sitting down for too long.

Lilith stood up and swung her sword around, getting a feel for its weight. Dust looked at her and decided to do the same. As he was in the middle of swinging his sword, Lilith spoke, “…Get ready.”

“Wha—!!” Dust made a startled sound as Lilith lunged at him at a speed he could still barely keep up with. She stabbed her sword towards Dust’s chest, but hit air instead as Dust’s feet danced to the side, dodging her attack.

His footwork was still sloppy as he almost lost balance, losing the chance to counterattack. Lilith flicked her wrist and her sword that was previously thrusting forwards was now slashing towards Dust’s chest. Dust hurriedly brought his sword in close and blocked the attack, jumping back as the swords collided and accelerating his retreat.

Lilith didn’t give him a chance to rest though, just as his retreat finished, she was already running towards him, her sword ready to strike. The sword she used swung out in a horizontal swipe and barely missed Dust who managed to duck underneath her swing.

He had a smug look on his face as he dodged and failed to notice Lilith’s leg that suddenly stretched out like a whip, striking his chest and sending him hurtling back.

Dust was sent flying back and used his momentum to roll, managing to get back up. He looked up at Lilith who still stood there with her foot stretched out, “…Don’t get overconfident. Pay attention to my movements, the sword in my hands isn’t the only weapon I can use to attack you.”

Lilith was already upon him as she finished speaking, her sword blurred as it swung down in a diagonal arc. Dust retreated two steps to dodge her strike before advancing forward the same distance, his sword beginning to slash down towards Lilith’s shoulder.

Her feet danced and evaded his attack by sidestepping, her movements like flowing water. Their eyes met for an instant as Lilith’s sword thrust forward, striking his shoulder and causing no small amount of pain.

Dust grit his teeth and let loose a punch in Lilith’s direction, he didn’t have a choice, if he wanted to have any chances against Lilith, he would have to go all out and resort to attacks like this.

Lilith responded to this by twisting her body and grabbing Dust’s outstretched arm, making use of his punch to drag his arm forward, making him stagger forward and abruptly hit the floor as Lilith kicked him in the back.

He tightened his fist around a small rock and stood back up, sending an elbow towards Lilith as he turned around. She stepped back and avoided this attack, raising the arm the held her sword above her head to block an overhead attack from Dust’s sword.

As she blocked, Dust sent a kick towards her abdomen, hoping it would hit.

It didn’t.

Lilith’s body twisted once again and his foot hit the air beside her.

She suddenly dropped down and sent a kick to his lower leg, tripping his feet up from under him. Dust fell down, his chin colliding against the ground below and almost causing him to bite his tongue off.

He hurriedly rolled away from Lilith and whipped his hand outwards as he finished his roll. The rock he held on to a while ago blurred as it traversed the distance between them.

Dust put power into his legs and lunged forward with a shout, thrusting his sword forward as Lilith deflected the rock he threw with her sword. His sword almost hit Lilith’s right shoulder, but his advance stopped as Lilith’s knee struck his stomach!

He let out a pained groan and collapsed to the side, his breathing heavy and uneven. His body was sore all over and sweat continuously rolled down his forehead as he clutched at his painful stomach.

“Haaah… Haah… I.. I give up. Let me rest…” Dust said, raising his arm in defeat. Lilith’s breathing was still normal and there was no sign of her being tired out at all. She reached into her enchanted bag and brought out a small canister of water, setting it down beside Dust.

“…Thanks.” He said as he evened out his breathing, watching as Lilith wordlessly walked away, sitting down near the fire they set up using some of the branches they gathered.

‘Still, the difference between a rank H like me and someone like her is pretty big… I wonder what her rank is…’ Dust thought to himself as he drank from Lilith’s container.

Adventurers were separated in a ranking system that used letters, with H being the lowest and A coming second after rank S and rank SS. Monsters were usually ranked according to this system too, same with dungeons. Only, dungeons had many ranks within, the first five floors may be ranked H for example, but the next five may be ranked G or higher.

Dust still had a long way to go, the continent they resided in was a big one, with multiple countries constantly struggling for power. Right now, they were in the central continent, where Dust was born. The country they lived in right now was in an alliance with three other countries, so it was relatively peaceful as it posed as a large deterrent to other invading nations.

The same couldn’t be said for the outer portions of the continent though. The seas were littered with pirates and the surrounding islands and nations were involved in constant power struggles and wars. Dust sighed, ‘I still have no leads on where those fuckers from long ago came from…’

Before anything else though, Dust had to focus on getting stronger. Finding those responsible would come after he was strong enough to fight them on equal grounds.

As Dust thought about this, his stomach grumbled in hunger. He frowned and walked back to Lilith, who sat near the fire.

“Hey, Lilith…” She looked up and raised an eyebrow as Dust said, “I’m hungry.”

She sighed lightly and shook her head with a slight smile as she brought out the same sandwiches that they ate before they fell here. They’d been here for a day and a half already, but the sandwiches were still surprisingly well preserved.

Dust hobbled over and sat down beside her, happily receiving his sandwich and eating contentedly with Lilith. He finished two sandwiches before bringing out the container he filled with lake water almost a day ago and giving it to Lilith.

“It’s from the lake over there. The water is still cool even now and it’s extremely refreshing to drink.” He said, watching as Lilith took a drink.

She finished and let out a refreshed breath as she wiped away some water on the side of her mouth. Lilith returned the container to Dust who laughed upon noticing that the container was almost empty.

Lilith briefly considered hitting Dust, but decided to let it go as she’ll get to do that later. She brought out three Balilaise Fruits and handed one of them to Dust who asked, “How many of those do you even have…?”

She glanced at him and said, “…Around a couple dozen,” she said as she tore into the fruit and ate. Dust sighed with a slight smile and similarly ate his fruit.

They sat there for half an hour before Lilith stood up and walked toward the wooden sword she put aside. Dust saw this and asked, “…What are you doing?”

She absentmindedly picked it up and swung it around, glancing at Dust who was still sitting near the fire, “…We’re going to start training again.”

".....”

“…Get your sword.”

“But my body’s still sore...”

“….That’s because you’ve been sitting in the same position for half an hour.”

“My joints hurt... can we do this tomorrow?”

“…..No.”

“…You must be tired from using too much mana, come here and rest, be like me.”

“…Get up.”

“…Please?”

Dust looked up with hope in his eyes, only to find that Lilith was nowhere to be seen. Suddenly, he began to rise. No, someone was pulling him up by the scruff of his shirt’s collar.

He looked back and saw Lilith with a blank look on her face, “…It’s not too late to go back on this, Lilith,” he said slowly.

Lilith smiled and raised the hand that held his shirt, “…Lilith, don’t.”

Her smile refused to disappear as she positioned Dust and her arm behind her, “…Seriously, don’t do this,” Dust said, his voice containing a bit of fear.

“…You asked for me to do this,” Lilith said as she gathered power in her arm and said, “…Didn’t you say you wanted to get stronger?”

Her arm suddenly blurred, Dust was now in the air, thrown by Lilith, hurtling away from the camp as his voice echoed out, “I take it baaack!!”

Lilith sighed and dashed toward him, ready for another round of training.

Chapter End.

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Author’s Note:

And here’s the chapter!! I hope you all enjoyed. As always, tell me your thoughts and leave a review if you liked the story and felt that I could do better if I corrected any mistakes that appeared!

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