Recounting the previous events that transpired in the dungeon: We were told that we’ll be fighting a fearsome foe before we advanced to the next floor, but what instead happened was that we found the door leading to the next floor before meeting any such beast.

Instead of considering ourselves lucky and simply moving forward, we quickly became paranoid of what would come if we didn’t obey the Book’s prediction. After looking around for a while we simply decided to sit down and wait patiently for danger to approach us.

We sat for what felt like an eternity in silence, with none of us even realizing how dumb of a plan we were enacting. Before long though, we finally caught a far off glimpse of a Minotaurus on the other side of the room, peacefully minding its own business.

In that very moment, we decided to run head first into danger purely for the sake of following the Book’s instructions, which then led to a deadly battle with the beast. In the end, thanks to all of our efforts, we finally succeeded in slaying the Minotaurus which lead to us victoriously returning to the door as everyone cheered each other on.

Marina, having stayed behind to look after our stuff (and so as not to get put in harm’s way) quickly noticed how heavily wounded we were. She not only suggested, but insisted she nurse us back to tip-top shape.

We were a bit hesitant about the whole idea, seeing as she definitely wasn’t in the right state of mind to play doctor, but after reading a passage from the Book indicating we’re in safe hands, we rightfully sat back down and allowed Marina to have her way with us.

Thankfully though, it seems Marina has gotten a lot more of her vocabulary back after spending some time with us. It looks like she might actually even make a full recovery if things keep going this smoothly! Although I find it curious how she retained her medical training. She mentioned her family to be a world-renowned group of doctors, so maybe she had the knowledge so deeply ingrained in her head that the Golden Apple’s effects didn’t reach that part of her brain?

***

“So, Gramps,” Marina addressed Linus, “tell me if this hurts.”

“YEEEAOWWWW!” He yelped in extreme pain as soon as she daintly hit his knee with a little hammer she got out from her backpack.

Her hands were very small and soft, so it’s not like she hit him hard. That being said, I see no reason as to why she would even consider hitting him with the intent for it to hurt. I believe she meant to check his reflexes at first, but it looks like she found another, more pressing issue. Indeed, Old Man Linus had a bad knee.

“This won’t do!” Marina said as she pulled out some Instarope from the luggage.

“What are you going to do with that?” He asked her with fear in his eyes.

“Just shut up and hold still.” She said as she held a nearby plank of wood up to his knee.

Just then, the Instarope she held in her hands burst open, quickly coiling itself around his leg and fastening the wooden plank to an almost airtight degree. The other party members (including me) simply stood there, fascinated by her amazing adaptability to the environment. What she did was essentially make a makeshift splint to help readjust his knee into the correct place. The tightness allowed for the pressure to passively push his dislocated knee back into place as he walked. Truly a magnificent display of practical knowledge!

“That’s amazing! And it doesn’t even hurt that much!” Linus said as he wiped the sweat from his brows. Clearly he didn’t trust Marina to be this capable, but it looks like he changed his mind quickly after getting his injury treated.

“Okay, next up is Lil’ Bro Sully!” She said as she turned to the discontent shorty.

“Why am I your Little Bro? I’m older than you!” said Sullivan.

“You’re short.” The entire party said in unison with a monotone voice.

We didn’t even want to hurt his feelings, we just wanted to let him know in case he genuinely didn’t know.

He grumbled a bit more before finally telling her “Fine! Check my shoulder, would ya? It’s been killing me for a while now.”

“Stop lying!” She karate chopped his head as if to scold him, “It’s obvious your shoulders are fine! It’s your back that’s been bothering you!”

We couldn’t really tell the difference, so we simply looked on at her with a question mark sprouting from our heads.

“Come on, guys! It’s common knowledge that when a short person doesn’t have proper sleeping posture, their spine will go out of whack!” She explained.

Certainly, he’s got a very peculiar way of sleeping. I’ve never once seen him wake up in the same position as when he fell asleep the previous night…

“Apart from that, you’ve been carrying both your luggage and Big Sis’!” Marina recalled another possible culprit to his backache, ”I’m honestly surprised you made it this far without popping your back, you’re an archer for Gods’ sake, take better care of your spine!”

After giving him the lecture of a lifetime (with the scolding being free of charge, of course), Marina actually had to stop to take a breath before she could continue. The now chipper Linus gave her a flask of water to help clear her throat.

“I didn’t know I was influencing Sully’s aching back. My bad on that one, so sorry!” Miss Lionheart clasped her hands together as if she was asking for forgiveness, “Since Sully offered to carry my things, I thought he was doing fine.”

“What kind of gentleman would allow a lady to carry around such heavy luggage?” Sullivan refuted with a question of his own.

We once again gave him a death glare as Marina was getting ready for round 2 of “The Scoldening”, but she decided to count to 10 instead and simply do what she promised to do.

“Lil’ Bro, lie down on the floor, will ya’?” She said calmly.

Sullivan obliged so as not to anger her any further, but quickly found the position he was in to be quite uncomfortable. He was laid out in a prone position, but for whatever reason it looked quite odd. If I had to describe it, it was as if one side of his body was longer than the other, effectively making his entire figure quite skewed.

“Just as I had presumed!” Marina mimicked blowing on a pipe as if she was some Ace Detective, “You have scoliosis.”

Scolly whose sis?

“It’s a condition that affects those with a weakened back. You carry too much weight, especially on your left side, which is why your right side is placed higher when you lay down like this.” She explained to us the symptoms of this condition before continuing, “This makes sense too. Since you’re an archer, you carry a quiver on your left shoulder, but that begs the question: DIDN’T YOUR INSTRUCTOR TEACH YOU TO DO BACK EXERCISES DAILY?”

“Uhh, she did.” Sullivan spoke quietly upon experiencing Marina’s wrath on full display, “But I didn’t really think it to be that important, so I might’ve skipped a few weeks.”

“A FEW WEEKS!?” Marina almost fainted from the shock, “That’s it! I need to correct your posture immediately! No holds barred!”

After making such a heroic sounding proclamation, she quickly sat down on his back, her butt facing his neck. We wondered what she was going to do, but quickly realized her intentions after she bent back to grab his hands from behind. What proceeded this limber action were the agonizing shrieks of our dear shorty-err, Sullivan.

“Ahhh! I give, I give! Let go, you’ll break my back, woman!” He yelped and yelped, but to no avail.

“No can do, Lil’ Bro.” She said as she hunched herself forward once more (much to Sullivan’s dismay), “I gotta fix your back pronto, we can’t have our archer pop his back in the midst of a fierce battle now, can we?”

After that painful sight, he was quickly propped back up into a sitting position, although there wasn’t even an ounce of relief in his face (as was the case for Linus). He actually looked to be in worse shape than before she got to him. Looks like the Book lied after all…

“I kinda feel better, but that might just be because of the adrenaline.” He said as he gasped for air.

“Exactly, that’s the point.” She looked at him with a proud, smug look on her face, “Correcting scoliosis isn’t something you can do in a day. It takes months, if not years, depending on the doctor that’s treating you. What I did was purely a precaution to make sure you’re properly warmed up for the next battle we inevitably face.”

“You… You fiend!” Sullivan cried as he clung to Miss Lionheart. It was supposed to look like a man seeking refuge in his lover’s warm embrace, but thanks to their height difference they mostly looked like a mother-son duo (wait, I shouldn’t be saying that, it makes their whole situation weird).

“Seriously, Marina,” Miss Lionheart protected the frail Sullivan, “You shouldn’t bully the boys just because you’ve been given the chance to. Although I do see the appeal in teasing them…”

“What are you talking about, Big Sis?” Marina turned to her with a scary grin, “You’re next.”

The room suddenly got eerily quiet, and the only thing we could hear was Miss Lionheart gulping with a fearful expression. Honestly, it was kind of funny, but none of us guys had the bravery to say it out loud.

“Okay,” Marina said, clapping her hands together as if to psyche everyone up, “let’s get you checked up!”

What followed this oddly unnerving proclamation of hers was an equally odd surprise. Marina was basically feeling Miss Lionheart up from head to toe, not skipping a single spot on her body. Not gonna lie, it was kind of a… nice sight to behold.

“U-Uhh, Marina? T-That kind of tickles, heheh…” Miss Lionheart tried her best to suppress her laughter from bursting out, the edges of her lips quivering as if they’re about to crack a slight smile, “No seriously, stop it-pfft!”

“Hold still, I need to check your heartrate, but those two mounds on your chest are getting in the way!” Marina copped a few more feels before ultimately giving up, “Ugh, this is impossible! Well, I can always check from your back…”

As she said this, she whipped out a stethoscope out of her backpack and put the listening part of the instrument in her ears. Honestly, who brings a stethoscope to a dungeon raid?

“WAAAH!?!?” Miss Lionheart suddenly yelped in surprise, “C-C-C-C-COLD!!”

After they fiddled around each other a bit more, the ‘inspection’ finally concluded. And the verdict?

“Yep, she’s all good, if a bit starved.” Marina said with a proud smile as if she’s a surgeon who successfully saved a person’s life, “I’ve noticed this even before we entered the dungeon, Big Sis, but you’re really starving yourself to keep your waistline in check. Even from this far away I could tell your movements during the fight with the Minotaurus were sluggish at best.”

“What can I say?” Miss Lionheart added onto that, “A lady’s gotta be in tip-top shape if she wants to be in this line of business, no?”

“Well, yes.” Marina said flatly, “But starving yourself out to the point of your body being on the brink of giving out isn’t exactly what I’d call tip-top shape. Once we get back home, you need to eat a ton, y’hear?”

The room went silent as Marina’s hopeful words left her mouth. The reason was quite obvious, too. If we were to believe the Book’s prophecy, then everyone in this room (safe from me) will die in this dungeon. I can only imagine the mental toll this revelation is making them endure. For all we know, any room we enter could be the last room they see, and the Book didn’t go into detail as to who will fall first, where and how. The thing I found to be quite fascinating, in fact, was the way they all dealt with this seemingly unbearable feeling.

Call me morbid, but I seriously do find these observations of mine interesting, at least to a certain degree. You see, Sullivan has presented himself as the self-proclaimed leader of the group when we first met, he’s trying to lift everyone’s spirits by providing us with humorous jokes, but if you look closely, you’ll notice he can’t keep still. Even when standing or sitting down, he restlessly bobs his right leg up and down in a never-ending motion. He’s nervous.

Old Man Linus is clinging on for dear life, it seems. An old adventurer who is nearing the end of his life, hopelessly seeking any semblance of a continuation to his story. If I had to describe his condition with one word, I’d call it pitiful. Even when I look at him, I’m almost repulsed by the sight of this pathetic old man who just won’t accept even the mere idea of death. Then again, I guess that’s something to revere, in a way…

And then there’s Miss Lionheart. She seems to be taking it the worst. She mentioned something about her sister, I wonder how often she thinks of her? In my anger and hastiness to just get this over with and go home, I called these guys all sorts of bad names (well, at least internally). I guess apologizing wouldn’t make sense, so the only way to atone is to be as compliant as possible.

Looking at all of them right now, I don’t even see a sliver of the adventurers I saw back when we first met. But also, I see such a magnificent sight of adventurers who are on a whole ‘nother level to the idiots who left me back at base. These are people who are looking death in the eyes and saying “Fuck off”. You’d expect their eyes to be devoid of any emotion, but in fact it’s quite the opposite. They’re filled with the hope of somehow finding a way out of here alive, and I’m there to help them achieve that future.

In any case, Marina’s words held no ill intentions, since she didn’t have the cognitive ability to understand the dread of their days (scratch that, hours) being numbered. We knew she wasn’t saying this on purpose, so we chose to agree with her and be naively optimistic.

The two guys next to me were kind of butthurt about Miss Lionheart not having to endure any of Marina’s doctoral miracle work, but the sounds and imagery they provided us were more than enough to keep us from revolting. In fact, I think this was a better outcome than what we could ever hope for, in a way.

“So that only leaves Big Bro, huh?” Marina turned to me finally, “Lemme have a looksie…”

She examined me like she did Miss Lionheart just now, except without the suggestive moans and quivers. I guess guys really do have a warmer body temperature, after all…

“Well, you’re a Green Iro (at least as of now), so I figured you’d be in a bit better shape than these guys.” Said Marina as she packed her equipment back into her backpack, “Come on guys, adventure awaits.” She said as a matter of fact.

“So I’m all good?” I asked as if not being able to believe how quickly my checkup was done and over with.

“Well, if you really want some advice,” Marina looked back at me, “as a Green Iro, your body’s pretty quick to heal, but that doesn’t make you immortal.”

Immortal? What does she mean by that? Is she making fun of me?

“My dad would have reckless Green Iros come to his clinic all the time.” She said as she recalled her childhood, “They’re all the same, thinking themselves to be immortal or something as they jump into harm’s way without a second thought.”

“That’s not-!” me… I tried saying, but I quickly recalled my own childhood.

At the age of 13, I fought a mother snair with nothing more than a book in my hand. Just half a year later, I ran into a stray wolf and lucked out by triggering Spark. I remember making Anna worry quite a bit back then…

Even then, instead of thanking the stars for getting out of these situations alive and staying back at Trivis Numerica to help Arthur globalize his restaurant, I simply decided to run on over to Great Hiana to engage in countless gang wars. Thinking back, I really did naively write myself off as immortal, huh?

“I knew that!” I shot back, angered at the fact she read me like a book, “No one can escape death, idiot!”

I didn’t mean to make it sound so depressing, but that’s just how it turned out. The other party members didn’t find my choice of words to be that appropriate for the situation though, so my comment was met with scoffs and nasty glares.

We proceeded to the next floor in silence.