Chapter 8: Daily Life in a Dungeon

Dust rolled across the dirt and utilized his momentum to stand up and jump back, he flicked his wrists and from his outstretched arms came numerous brown blurs. Four small wooden daggers were now headed towards Lilith.

Lilith deflected three daggers with her wooden sword, and at the same time snatching the last one from the air and flinging it towards Dust who twisted his body midair and barely dodged.

The seven-inch dagger hit a large boulder behind Dust who kicked off the boulder and sailed towards Lilith. His body twisted in a full circle as he swung his sword, strengthening his horizontal strike. The black-beauty he attacked merely ducked under his swing, only to be met with the sight of Dust’s foot headed straight at her face!

Her expression remained calm as she lightly redirected his foot upwards, using enough force to destroy Dust’s rhythm. She saw as his face revealed a bit of panic as he twisted his body and used his arms to support his frame.

Dust let out a low grunt as he put the weight of his entire body on his arms, he tried to use his arms to propel himself upwards, but he was too weak and too slow. Lilith sent a kick to his waist, making his hand-stand collapse and sending him to the floor for the Nth time today.

His breathing was rough and his body was covered in sweat, but he had long since grown to this routine as a large smile covered his face. Close to a week had passed since they fell down here and every day was a grueling training routine Lilith had set up for him. Lilith’s magic recovered a day ago, but she insisted that he get stronger so that he wouldn’t be a hindrance to her as they explored the dungeon.

“…Heh, that went better than last time at least,” Dust murmured to himself as he laid on the ground, remembering just how much he got thrashed by Lilith during the first few days of training.

His rate of improvement was pretty fast, and he even managed to make Lilith increase her speed by a little bit during their spars. It wasn’t even close to her normal speed, but it was a significant achievement for Dust who continuously had his pride shattered.

Four days of continuous training had improved his reflexes and battle prowess, right now, Dust was probably bordering on the strength of a strong G rank adventurer. Wind wolves would still pose a threat, but Dust was confident in being able to handle two—maybe three at the same time now.

Dust slowly stood up and felt the ever-present ache his body now had, wincing slightly before bringing out a canister of lake water and drinking, and then retrieving a piece of slightly overcooked rabbit meat from his bag and having a small meal.

Lilith watched him for a moment before leaving to take a bath in the lake. They had found a secluded area that was perfect for bathing in a few days ago and Lilith would usually take a bath in there after their daily afternoon spars.

The temptation of secretly peeking on her as she bathed crossed Dust’s maturing mind multiple times over the last few days, but he decided against it as he valued his life more. Furthermore, she was the only person in here with him and he didn’t want to ruin the trust he managed to build up around Lilith because of something stupid like that.

Dust collected the wooden daggers from the ground and stored them in his pocket.

He walked back to the campsite and set up a decently sized fire, the cold he felt in his body was swept away within a few seconds. He sat near the fire and brought out another piece of rabbit meat, eating a very late lunch.

Dust had grown used to eating lunch late too, spars with Lilith tended to take a lot out of him, his lunch included if he had any.

A few minutes later, Lilith returned wearing a new set of clothes. She wore the same coat she usually wore over a shirt and dark brown pants. Her hair was still slightly wet as she walked over and sat opposite of Dust, not eating anything as she already had lunch.

“..Hey Lilith.”

She looked up and raised an eyebrow.

“…Thanks for everything,” Dust said as he laid down and slowly turned his back. To this, Lilith simply displayed a slight smile. It was good to hear a few words of appreciation, no matter who it came from.

She thought back to the tusk boar commission she took and sighed lightly, she was way past the deadline and the request would have been cancelled already. She could sell the tusks she collected, but the money she’d get would be nowhere close to what she would have received if she did the commission.

It seemed that Dust was going to take a nap, so Lilith decided that she would head back to the dungeon’s forest floor. The two of them would have to get moving soon, they couldn’t stay here forever. Lilith still had things she had to do.

Lilith went around the floor, looking for the entrance that led to the next floor, or better yet, an exit that took them outside.

After moving around the area for about an hour, she’d already killed no small amount of monsters. The dungeon was filled with mana, so utilizing magic was much easier, but this also led to an increased monster population.

Mana would mutate the characteristics of normal animals and make them stronger, faster, and more aggressive. Other cases of monster creation are when mana that resides within a monster condenses and solidifies into a mana crystal. Mana crystals are usually found in only one monster out of ten, the market heavily relies on these as most magic tools ran on them.

A she slaughtered her way through Goliath Beetles and green Wind Wolves, she collected a decent amount of seven mana crystals, which are more common in dungeons due to the large mana density.

Eventually, Lilith reached the northern end of the floor, unsurprisingly, there was a large pair of doors that came together to form a double-doored entrance. It was evident that this door was ancient, vines and other plants littered the area around the large doors and even ran up its frame, giving it a one-with-nature look.

At least she’d found the entrance to the next floor. Dungeons usually had a one-way teleportation array at the last floor’s treasure room. Scholars have always wondered why dungeons always came with these, but a specific answer was never found.

The elves suggested that it was a blessing from their god, Lucatiel, to reward the brave souls that managed to clear out the dungeon in the form of a room filled with mysterious magical items and treasure, including a safe pass to the outside.

This is so that the races would be more willing to destroy the creations of the demon god, dungeons and his demons. According to history the two gods had once gone into a conflict and plunged the whole continent into a massive war.

The war had long since ended, but the elf and demon god were still going at it, constantly trying to best one another. It was prophesized that another war would break out between gods soon, but it was dismissed by most people as superstition. The war from long ago merely believed to be legend, history had no records of it ever happening.

‘But what if...’

Lilith found her thoughts straying to the old tales her older brother once told her and shook her head, removing the large amount of information and speculation from her head. It wasn’t the time to be thinking about these things.

She stared at the door with a complex expression as she thought about her family. Her eyebrows furrowed as she contemplated going inside and checking what awaited them at the next floor.

She decided against it.

Dust still had his training and going in right now would be too dangerous if he couldn’t take care of himself. Lilith also felt like she could have a breakthrough in regards to her magic within a few days, so she chose to head back to the camp.

When she returned, she surprisingly found that Dust… was training by himself. Sweat rolled down his forehead as he practiced his stance and sword swings, occasionally, his hands would flash and small wooden daggers would come shooting out.

The one dagger would hit the boulder in front of him while one would travel to the one at his side. It seemed like he was trying to make it so that both daggers would hit the rocks at the same time…

Lilith who saw this smiled, ‘He isn’t completely hopeless after all,’ she thought.

She silently walked to him and pat his shoulder, startling Dust who was in the middle of practicing a sword swing and making him lose his balance as he put too much force into the swing.

He staggered and barely kept himself upright, sighing at Lilith as he said, “Would you stop doing that? Seriously, it’s bad for my heart.”

She kept smiling as she said, “…Since your training energetically by yourself, how about another round of training with me?”

Dust’s face paled as he hear this, “What? No. I wasn’t training, I was just.. uh.. Testing out the quality of my wooden daggers! Yes! They aren’t working very well are they? I’m going to need to carve new ones…” He blurted out a large stream of words and suddenly began to walk off as he said the last part.

Lilith was dumbstruck at his sudden change, one moment he was training seriously, and the next he was trying to escape. She grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled him back. His face was dark as he seriously said, “I’m going to die early at this rate.”

To this, she smiled lightly, “…You’ll die even earlier if you’re weak.”

Dust’s face fell before he sighed helplessly and walked over to his sword, picking it up. Lilith motioned for him to start, he quickly dashed to her and began another cycle of getting beaten down and standing back up, resuming the daily life he lived in his stay inside a dungeon.

His pathetic screams echoed out in the side of a beautiful lake for another five days, living in a routine that he would habitually take part in even in the future.

Chapter End.

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Author’s Note:

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