Dungeon Delving is Damn HARD (danmachi / kinda SI)

 

            The Beast’s needle-like teeth sank into my flesh with incredible ease, biting off my entire arm and swallowing it in a single gulp.

 

With its sharp claws it grabbed me by the shoulder and lifted my body up until I could stare into its glowing red eyes

 

“Persistent little shit aren’t you?” The beast told me as its claws ripped out my belly, spilling blood all over its shirt.

 

In front of my eyes the creature shifted, it’s snout retreated while its claws turned into daggers until all that was left was a large man holding me by the throat and frowning.

 

With a roar of rage the man drove his dagger under my neck once, twice, three times, then he smashed me against the ground and continued to stab me over and over and over…

 

I woke up with a scream, my face was covered in sweat and I was completely out of breath, for a few seconds I searched aimlessly for my phone to see what time it was until I remembered just where I was and sighed.

 

At least I HAD woken up.

 

Looking around I noticed I was resting on the floor of a tent. If I squinted my one good eye I could see Rivira from the gap on my tent’s opening, letting myself relax once again. I dropped my head back on the pillow and wiped my face with the covers.

 

Taking stock of my situation I saw that my wounded arm was in a cast, I no longer had a crossbow bolt sticking out of me and my wounded eye was properly bandaged, even better my headache was gone and I felt… good, I was also incredibly hungry.

Not perfect by all means, my arm was still aching and my muscles were all protesting any movement I made but I was well rested and not in immense pain so it was a huge improvement.

 

When no one came to check on my scream I sighed, my gear laid beside me but there was nothing else on my tent and I desperately needed a little food.

I managed to push myself into a sitting position, then grabbed the pole in the middle of the tent and pulled myself back on my feet, I didn’t even lose balance.

 

Stretching my back I briefly considered looking for a cane but decided I didn’t need it and walked out of the tent on my own two feet. My first steps were careful and uncertain but I quickly gained confidence and was walking normally by the time I stepped outside.

 

It was still night at the 18 floor of the dungeon but some of the white crystals in the ceiling were already starting to shine down on the city, giving me a great view of the giant tree in the middle of the floor.

 

I was just starting to smile while staring when the desperate face of the man flashed into my mind, filled with fear and pain as I stabbed his neck with my dagger until there wasn’t even blood anymore.

 

Falling to my knees I started dry heaving while trying to banish the image from my mind.

 

In my eyes I could see every drop of sweat on the man’s face, every twitch of his flesh as my dagger cut it, the way the blood sprayed out from his veins, my sharingan had recorded it all and made absolutely sure I’d never be able to forget it.

 

I must have stood there for an entire minute before I was able to think straight, the panic and desperation of the memory finally left me and I started to really think about my actions at that time.

 

            I had never killed a man, no I had never even thought I’d have to kill a man before coming here. It was both harder and easier than I had thought. 

 

            Harder in the sense that I didn’t want to do it, my body itself had fought against the action pulling my blows, making them weaker than I knew was needed, slower too, until I was so desperate to survive that I acted on pure instinct. 

 

            It was also easier, my dagger punched through his skin with barely any resistance, humans were far more fragile than even the weakest of monsters, their blood flowed freely from any wound, pumped out by their own beating heart.

 

            Regaining control of my body I spit to the side and wiped my mouth with my arm, slowly my breathing started to return to normal and I got up before spitting once more to get rid of the foul taste in my mouth.

 

            I still felt a little guilty about the act but it had been a matter of life and death and, surprisingly, I knew I’d do it all over again if it was needed, I wasn’t about to become a mass murder or something but, if pressed, I knew I wouldn’t hesitate again.

 

I didn’t know if that was a good thing or not, I had been raised religiously and, while I had distanced myself from any church after growing up and didn’t exactly follow the bible, I had taken the ‘thou shall not kill’ part of it seriously.

 

“Hey, you’re up” came Mord’s voice from inside another tent, pushing my musings to the side I turned towards him.

 

Mord wasn’t looking great, his shoulder was still wrapped in bandages and he looked white as a ghost but he was walking around normally and seemed to be in high spirits.

 

“Morning, you’re looking happy” I grumbled while grabbing at the sling on my arm.

 

“Why wouldn’t I be?” He said and patted me on the back with far less strength than usual “We survived newbie, not only that but we also made a killing, what more do you want from a delve?”

 

I suppose he was right, pinching the bridge of my nose I sighed “Alright what now?”

 

“Now we make our way to the medical tent, Zenobi said he wanted to see you again after you awoke” he said and turned me towards a small tent with a red cross in front of it “the kid’s a hard worker so he should be awake already”

 

“What about you?” I asked, looking him over he didn’t look all that well.

 

“Ahh, he already looked me over, turns out I’m fine but healing potions aren’t the best at treating blood loss” Mord coughed into his hand “You on the other hand, you’ve been asleep for three days now, we were starting to get worried”

 

“What?” I asked dumbfounded at the same time as I felt my stomach grumble loudly “Shit, you think I can eat something first?”

 

“You know what, I’ll leave you with the guy and grab some breakfast for us alright?” Mord smiled as he guided me towards the medic “I heard you saved me… thanks I owe you one”

 

“I didn’t really think about it” I confessed embarrassed, I hadn’t fought the Vouivre to save Mord, or at least not only to save Mord.

 

Even now I didn’t understand why I had charged the monster like that but at least I knew being a hero was only a very small part of it, I barely knew Mord and, while I liked him, we weren’t even friends yet, not really.

 

Pushing the tent flaps aside, Mord poked his head inside and shouted “Hey Zenobi, the newbie finally woke up!”

 

“It’s Modaka, Mo. Da. Ka.” A frustrated male voice said from inside the tent. “Get him inside them”

 

Being pushed inside the small tent I saw a short, young guy sitting behind a desk, his chest was mostly bare with only a strap over one shoulder holding his shorts up, he had huge bags under his eyes and seemed incredibly tired.

 

“Good luck, I’ll find something for us to eat” Mord closed the flap and shouted, already walking away.

 

“So you’re the medic?” I asked while lifting an eyebrow.

 

“Not really” Modaka sighed while scratching at his eyes with both hands “but I’m the closest thing to one down here, of course they made it my job”

 

Getting up from behind the desk the guy took out my bandages and looked inside my eyes before checking my arm.

 

“As I said I’m not really a healer but your companions wanted me to have a look at you anyway” He told me as he handed me a green potion to drink “you’re gonna have to check with someone up there in Orario but you seem ok, I’d say you were just suffering from overusing your <mind>”

 

“I see” I drank the potion, a warm feeling filling my throat before both my muscles and my wounded arm stopped aching, scratching at an itch inside my cast. I frowned “why am I in a cast? Shouldn't potions have dealt with it.”

 

“Sure, if you were willing to pay 120 thousand valis” he told me while sitting back down “it’s cheaper to just put it in a cast and drink a common potion a day, should take about two weeks to completely heal”

 

It made sense, in the show any potion used had healed just about everything and yet, potion tiers were still mentioned, there were still elixirs worth millions and other medicines and treatments.

 

“Thanks Modaka” I said when it became clear the man couldn’t do all that much, three days without eating had left me ravenous and I was eager to see if Mord had found some food.

 

“What did you just call me?” he asked, almost jumping out of his chair, his eyes shining like stars.

 

“Ah, Modaka?” I said while taking a few steps back, the guy looked like he wanted to jump me and I had no desire to feel his bare chest against me.

 

“Thank you! Thank you!” he buried his face against an arm and actually started crying “You don’t know how much this means to me!”

 

“Riiiight, you sure you don’t need to rest or something?” I suggested, the guy looked exhausted and was clearly having some kind of mental breakdown.

 

“No, no, I need to finish this paperwork for the monsterphilia but thanks for asking” I gave him a nod and hurried out of the tent to search for some food “ugh, why can’t Farna-sama do those things, it’s always me”

 

Back outside I didn’t see Mord anywhere, my stomach was rumbling again so I started walking towards the city, walking through the camp I saw drawings of an elephant mask everywhere.

 

On the patch to Rivira was a clearing without any tents, instead there were dozens of steel cages filled with monsters and guarded by adventurers in similar gear to Modaka.

 

Looking at them I recognized a cage with four lizardmen and another with a mad beetle but there were also small green humanoids that were probably goblins, metal rabbits, harpies and even a huge cage with a giant green snake curled up inside it.

 

Passing the cages several of the guards gave me suspicious stares but I just nodded at them and moved on, too hungry to even watch the beasts.

 

I caught Mord just as he was leaving the Inn, he waved me over and I attacked the bag he was holding devouring everything without even looking while shoving him back inside, there was no way a single bag would be enough.

 

An hour and almost six hundred valis later I pushed my chair back finally satisfied, Scott and Guile had turned up for breakfast earlier and thanked me for the help with the Vouivre but had already left to pack up their things.

 

Apparently the Ganesha familia had killed the Goliath yesterday while I was still asleep and the party had managed to convince the familia to hire them for help leaving the dungeon.

 

Usually Ganesha’s adventurers were more than enough for middle and upper floors but, with almost a hundred monsters being carried in cages, they needed all the help  they could get and Mord’s party were mostly competent even wounded as they were.

 

Good thing I woke up when I did or they’d have to pay for someone to carry me up. It really was about time I got out of this damn dungeon.