“Do you have everything ready?”

  “Yes mom~”

  I said in a mocking tone, seriously Heather can be a bit overprotective from time to time, she literally had me pack clothes, money, even soap and other daily necessity products, I know the pce it’s far, the farthest I’ve been from town but, I really don’t think I would take days away, fortunately my backpack already holds almost all my possessions, so it wasn’t that much, still before I knew it, the sun started to set, my pn was to depart immediately but Heather is telling me that I shouldn’t be traveling around at midnight.

  “I’m not a child, stop treating me like one”

  “You say that, but we don’t know who might be lurking at night, better safe than sorry, plus it’s not like the dungeon is going anywhere, and even if the adventurers decide to go as well, they wouldn’t just go right away, preparations for expeditions are always important”

  “Meh, fine, I’ll go tomorrow morning, but you better help me keep company tonight~”

  “Oh you, I don’t mind it at all~”

  She said, while blushing slightly, I have to say between the Heather that tried to slice my neck and this one, the difference is night and day, not that I dislike it, In fact there’s some preparations that are in order for once I get that ring in my possession,I also want to talk with her about that threesome~

  Truth be told I haven’t touched Rushka these past couple of days, she spends all day in her ‘b’ that I feel I’m gonna work her to the bone, I’ll let her be just until she manages to not wish to be stuck all day working, I tried to force her to rest at the very least, but she said she already rested enough, plus she has that giddy and excited look when she comes to report on the progress of Heather’s prosthetics that I really can’t rain on her parade, I simply sit down and listen to her rambling about things I barely understand, very different from her solemn face when working.

  ...

  ...

  “Say Heather, I want to try something new~”

  “New? What’s on your mind Marisa?”

  “Butt stuff!~”

  “E-eh!?”

  “Un! Can we?”

  I have magic, so just like I could create the poison for the troops, making a slippery and viscous fluid was a simple next step, it’s transparent, and I had one of the maids drink it just to make sure it’s safe, nothing happened so that’s a thumbs up for me, not that I had any malicious thoughts when creating it, unlike the poison, I was just thinking about water that could be extra slippery~

  “I worry about where you’re getting these ideas...”

  “I wonder~”

  “Did you continue reading those books? You shouldn’t do that, your brain is gonna rot like that pig!”

  Oh, she’s talking about the erotic contents I found in the books the piggy kept hidden in his study, Celestial found those while rummaging around looking for information information, it was quite fun because said study was where we were doing all the town paperwork.

  Celestial was quite unamused and ignored them to continue her search, Heather and Rushka both blushed at the sight, we decided to put them back since we were too busy to get distracted at the moment.

  “Knowledge is power! It’s important to try everything no?~”

  “Marisa, well, just don’t overindulge in those sort of things ok”

  “Sure thing! Just every now and then~”

  “Ok, just this time ok!”

  “Ok, thank you Heather~?”

  And so I spent a rather fun night with Heather, I had to control myself or else I would rip her guts apart and risk her bleeding or worse, the magic lube helped, and it also helped to make Heather st longer, she’s been naturally improving over time in endurance, which it’s always nice, because it means we can go on for longer.

  Before I knew it, the sun rose once again. Waking me and Heather up, the time to go dungeon crawling is finally here, I’d lie if I said I wasn’t slightly excited, either that or the idea of not having to sve away working was what made me eager to go.

  “Do you have everything ready?”

  “Again? We went over this yesterday”

  “Just making sure, and-”

  “Marisa, are you finally going over to those ruins, let me accompany you”

  “Celestial? no it’s fine, stay here”

  “But-”

  “Are you worried about me? Don’t be, I can take care of myself!”

  “Still, I-”

  “Plus I need you to look after things in here, the only reason I can leave without too much worry is that you’re here to protect the town in my absence”

  “Hmm, if you put it like that, are you sure you’re gonna be fine on your own?”

  “Absolutely!”

  “Alright, just promise that in worst case scenarios, you’ll flee before trying to bite more than you can chew”

  “Boring, but if that gives you peace of mind, I promise, plus I can teleport anyways”

  “Right, and about food?”

  Oh right, I didn’t think of that, Celestial is not gonna be around to let me suck her blood, although a couple of days without it won’t kill me, it was way worse when I didn’t have her around.

  “I-”

  “That’s where I come in!”

  Said Rushka, running towards us with a container in hand. I did pn on giving my farewell to Rushka so I was gonna visit her at the study afterwards.

  “Rushka?”

  “I made this! Just a simple container with a catalyst and cooling spell! It’s gonna help you keep blood without it coaguting! Although it’s gonna be moving constantly...”

  “That’s fine, it could be way worse! Thank you dear~”

  “Let me”

  Said Celestial, taking the container and filling it with her blood, after slicing her wrist with one of her nails, as she has done countless other times.

  “The catalyst will st a couple of hours tops, so I recommend you remember to refill it constantly”

  “Sounds about right, thank you, it’s really helpful!”

  “No problem honey”

  One day, we will have modern electricity convenience I hope, but until then, this will do nicely. I strapped the cylinder not inside but on the side of the backpack to remind me it needs to be recharged, and with that, I’m ready to go.

  “See you ter girls~”

  I said, giving a kiss to Rushka, and then one to Heather immediately after, and waved goodbye to the three of them, as I headed for the entrance.

  “““Safe travels!”””

  They said, waving back towards me, as soon as I was outside the pace, I teleported to the capital, it is the easiest route to my destination from here, just east, the question is where is east from here? Just follow where the sun rises, right? I don’t have a compass, worst case scenario if I get lost, I can just go back home, plus this helps me learn more possible teleportation pces, so it’s not all lost.

  I have to say though, the level of development of the roads leave a lot to be desired, the kingdom is in shambles! I’m gonna have to work in setting up more proper transportation means when I’m in power, I mean I know the dirt roads are fine for carriages and such methods that are the norm of the world, but I pn to have Rushka develop trucks eventually, maybe I’m putting the cart after the horse now that I think about it, that’s a problem for the future.

  And then I crossed a town, and then another, and then another, I do have a map, so I know it’s the right way, my mad dashing is alerting some of the different town guards, but they just let me be, since I just ask them what city is this, and after confirming my path on the map, I continue my running.

  This helps a lot as well because Celestial told me I need to exercise more to become stronger, and I don’t see a better exercise than running through the whole country.

  My shoes disagree, but if they give up on me from use, then they served their purpose. I do have more shoes in my backpack so it’s not like I’ll have to go barefoot.

  After reaching the final town closest to my destination, I headed into the forest to look for the destined ruins, maybe I should take it easier? It’s a journey, an adventure, an-

  “What are you doing here!?”

  Adele, in the middle of this forest as well!

  “I could ask the same thing! Disregarding the guild like that”

  “The pot calling the kettle bck!”

  “We just think alike, is all”

  “Sigh... ruins are dangerous! It’s not- actually, you’ll be fine, I’ve seen your strength with my own eyes”

  “Thanks? Not that anything you say will make me pack and leave”

  “I can see that, you came all the way from Welst for the sake of these ruins, that just shows your conviction”

  “I am for real, I ran all the way home to get here!”

  “Is that so, since we’re here, want to team up just this once? It’s better for us that the guild doesn't know of this little escapade of ours, or they might give us an appropriate punishment”

  “Well I don’t mind, but I’m keeping what we find in there!”

  “No can do, look, these things can range from historical to dangerous, there’s really no reason to argue right now, not that we have anything in our possession yet”

  “Yeah, let us find the ruins to begin with, it should be around here somewhere”

  And so, both Adele and I looked around the forest, she’s always so mysterious, not showing a single inch of her skin, covered head to toe like that, she’s poking the ground with her staff, god knows what she’s doing.

  “Ha! I found it”

  “Oh, did you now? Where is it?”

  “Wouldn’t you like to know”

  Oh, I can’t see her face but I felt the smugness, how dare she do my own signature move against me, more importantly, I never expected her to be like that, she always sounds so grounded.

  “Well, I’ll just follow you then, that will lead me to it!”

  “Figure as much, it’s just north from here, but it’s easy to miss”

  “Lead the way, you’re the dungeon expert after all”

  She then took me to a side of the small hill in the forest. It's interesting because it’s protruding rather awkwardly now that I look at it with more detail, but also, if I wasn’t told to pay attention to it, I would have missed it entirely as part of the terrain.

  “In here?”

  “Yeah, it seems to be hidden, but not on purpose”

  “Then?”

  “Look”

  She pointed to the side, where roots of trees are protruding from it, I looked closer and sure enough, the wall of the cliff seems to be rather thin, it’s-

  “Probably with the years and rain, dirt from a ndslide must have covered this pce, and the entrance was covered in what seems to be a sort of cy”

  “Cy? So I just have to break the wall right?”

  “Yeah but-”

  “Wall begone!”

  A simple punch was enough, and sure enough my hand went right through, it felt empty inside, meaning that Adele was indeed right about the entrance being covered.

  “Uh...”

  “Good luck”

  Said Adele as she backed away, the little cliff was rumbling as I saw another mini ndslide coming down on top of me, nothing I can’t just jump away from as well, but it was quite entertaining to see it crumble down like that.

  “Are you happy now! you just buried the entrance further!”

  “Nothing a good old spell can’t fix, just a matter of sweeping debris!”

  I don’t know why Adele seems to be making a fuss about it, what was her pn to enter anyways? For now I started moving the rubble with magic, it took a minute or two, but the entrance was finally visible.

  “Well would you look at that”

  “Simply astonishing, how long was it built that it got that buried? This must be a thousand years old at bare minimum”

  What greeted us was a brick entrance built of a somewhat grayish bck stone, kinda like looking at a huge door frame, without the door of course.

  “There’s no carvings on the walls or entrance, this must be a pce to hide something then”

  “How do you know?”

  “If it was an abandoned castle, there would be signs of civilizations around, houses, markets, even small traces but there’s nothing, and is also not a pce they want people of the future to see, if they didn’t bother to adorn it in any way”

  Well it checks out with the story that Celestial told me about this pce, it should be close to a warehouse if it’s only purpose is to store stuff.

  “Maybe it was even buried by their creators, who knows?”

  “That might be a possibility, yes”

  And like that, we both headed inside the dungeon, getting ready for anything that could jump towards us at any moment.

  “What do you know of this pce?”

  “Wouldn’t you like to know~”

  See, you’re not the only one that can be smug and mean at the same time.

  “Sigh... whatever, it’s not like we’ll get much deeper like this”

  “Why not?”

  “Look, the entrance it’s barred”

  It’s true, inside the ruins, the second doorway we found is completely covered by metal bars, well I say doorway, more like a hole in the wall and horizontal rods.

  “I see”

  I went to the bars, and proceeded to grab one with my hands.

  “Hmm!!”

  “Don’t be stupid, it’s made of mana draining metal, no way you’re getting through it like that”

  “Oh! It’s made of that, I see”

  Like the handcuffs the piggy used on me I guess, it seems to be the same but also, these are rusted in comparison and don’t make me feel as weak, I should be able to break them!

  “There’s usually a mechanism to open the- Oi! Listen to me!”

  “Hnnn!!”

  “You brute! Stop wasting your energy like that, we could-“

  “Shut it! I’ll get this open in a second!”

  “Sigh... so undy like”

  ...I’m here, legs wide open to make support, pulling on a metal bar with each one of my hands, trying to bend it open, then she called me undy-like, I don’t know why, but that really hurt my pride for some reason! I mean I am, err was, umm kinda am a man! How dare she insult me like that!

  “Just break already!!”

  *crash*

  “Haa... fuck!”

  I... couldn’t do it per se, the bar came off completely intact and the stone structure that supported it broke, so I ended up pulling it completely clean off the stone bricks, and also, falling on my butt in the process.

  “You little monster...”

  “Damn, the bars are still to close together to fit my head inside, guess I’ll just take another one down”

  I said but as I grabbed another bar, a rumbling sound caught us off guard.

  “What is that?”

  “Oh! Iron golems from the post demon king era! The design is very specific, which means I know when these ruins were built!”

  “Yeah, iron golems, they seem to have the intention to attack us though. Maybe leave the nerding out for ter?”

  Those are some stiff golems if I ever saw some, but also, they’re quite big, so getting hit would probably hurt, probably being the key word.

  “What are we gonna do!?”

  “Take care of them while I get this bar off”

  “Don’t boss me around, also, stop tearing the ruins apart!!”

  What!? Adele then grabbed me from behind and pulled me from my waist.

  “What are you doing!?”

  “It’s a priceless ruin, don’t wreck it!”

  “It’s whatever! Just a bar or two so we can enter!”

  “I’m telling you, we have to find a key or condition to open it!”

  “I don’t have time for that! Let go-“

  As we were arguing in a conga line, the bar, me and Adele in that order, the golems continued their lumbering walk, slowly they proceeded to throw a punch towards us.

  “Ah, so annoying!”

  I let go of the bar and then immediately punched them back, trashing them in a second as the golem flew crashing onto the next one, they were softer than the bars covering the entrance!

  “W-why did you do that!!”

  “Why? They were attacking us!”

  “B-but they were timeless iron golems! You can’t just destroy them like that!”

  “Well, they’re timeless trash now”

  “Ah... the core, at least I’ll save their core to-”

  “Oh! The bars went up! The puzzle was getting rid of the golems I guess, see, we had to destroy them”

  “Ugh...”

  “Anyways, I’m going ahead, you coming or what?”

  I said, she’s literally almost mourning the remains of the golems that tried to turn us into paste.

  “Of course I am! I’m even more worried now! At this rate you’ll just destroy this pce!”

  She said, pcing the golem remains into a dimensional pocket, kinda like what Celestial does, Maybe I should learn this magic spell as well but, the backpack kinda invalidates the uses, although maybe a way to access the backpack could be nice, it was apparently bound to me or something like that.

  “Why do you care so much about this old and decrepit pce?”

  “Old and decrepit! How dare you! These ruins are part of history! Can’t you see!”

  “I mean yeah, but also, they probably have a purpose and then aren’t they useless afterwards?”

  “Useless!? You get so much on my nerves!”

  Just like that I continued spelunking deeper with a grumpy Adele.

  “This...”

  “Another barred door, really?”

  “Hmm... look like there’s buttons on the floor”

  “That they are”

  “Hnn! I can’t push it, but they have symbols written on them! I remember seeing that symbol in a sphere from the room before! maybe if we collect them and pce them in the buttons and- hey!”

  “Hnnn!!”

  C’mon stupid button, just get pressed! Aha! After a cracking sound, I could finally press it down!

  “Wait! Marisa! We have to get the balls to pce on the switches-“

  “That’s a hassle! Besides, how do you know you’ll find said balls?”

  “Well, there’s other rooms connected to this one, maybe if we looked around”

  “That would take time! Besides the prize have to be ahead seeing that is a closed door”

  “Stop it! At least one, at least this one let me put one ball in!”

  “Kinky!~ Fine, go get it”

  I said, while I pushed another button.

  She then fled and quickly returned carrying the ball over her head, which then she pced on the st button and it slowly pressed down, with two broken down buttons and one pressed, the barred door finally opened.

  “Seriously, are you an orc or something!?”

  “Nope, I’m a demon, why?”

  “You try to brute force everything!”

  “It’s easier this way if we can, right? and there’s nothing to lose anyways!”

  “But you’ll ruin this pce!”

  “They’re ruins, it’s implied the name to be ruined!”

  “How can you say that... even though they should remain preserved...”

  “You like these sort of pces a lot huh?”

  “Yeah, I do”

  “Why? They don’t seem particurly interesting, more so since like you mention, there’s not a single carving on the walls or history to be retrieved from this pce”

  “Hmm... I guess you have a point but”

  “Yes?”

  “I... truth be told, when I was little, my mom used to read me all sort of stories about dungeons all the time, I got a little obsessed ever since”

  “Oh really! So it’s just a hobby?”

  “Something like that, there wasn’t much to do where I lived with my mom, but the books she read to me were my favorite, I remember them fondly”

  Adele turned tame for a second, almost sadly reminiscent of the past.

  “Is that so, even so, it’s one thing to like ruins and stories, and a completely different one to delve into them”

  “Yeah, I guess you’re right, truth be told I’m also looking for something, something that I now think, might possibly be in this dungeon”

  “Yes? What is it?”

  “Like hell I’ll tell you! besides you’re doing the same thing aren’t you?”

  “Yeah”

  “What is so important to come here rushing across the kingdom?”

  “That’s a secret, see I’ll keep it to myself too, but it’s something I have to get, no matter what!”

  I need that ring, truth be told, I want to give it to Heather, make our retionship a more permanent one, I know if I asked Heather she’ll just tell me it’s pointless and useless to get a ring, but... maybe I felt her jealousy when she saw Rushka, or maybe it’s how I would feel in her shoes, I want to make her happy, it probably won’t mean anything but, I’d rather try and fail, than not try at all!

  “Sigh... let us pray that what we’re looking for is not the exact same thing”

  “I doubt it, you have no use for the thing I’m looking for, but we’ll see once we find what’s being kept on this pce”

  Joanne_carper