“This pce it’s quite huge huh?”

  “Yeah, let’s rest a bit, it’ll be dangerous if we continue without a break”

  “Speak for yourself, I’m perfectly fine”

  Even so, I expected to be away just for a little while, but it turned out to be massive inside, mostly corridors. Kinda like an underground maze.

  “You’ll get yourself killed if you continue without rest”

  “I doubt it”

  “Did you at least pack for a couple of days?”

  “Yes but, I really hope it doesn’t take that long, I’m a busy person after all”

  “If you say so, by the way, what is that thing whirring on your backpack?”

  “Oh, you mean this, thanks for reminding me”

  I said, pcing mana in the container, to keep it going for longer, although thinking rationally, once I drink it, I shouldn’t have a need to keep refilling it with mana then.

  “It’s my food”

  “Food? It looks like a canteen?”

  “Yep, more of a drink I guess”

  “Hmm, I still insist we should take a break, even for a minute”

  “Are you tired already?”

  “If you overexert yourself there’s gonna be troubles, it’s better to rest at every opportunity we get”

  “I’m fine really, do you want to rest?”

  “yes”

  “Is that so, let’s sit down then”

  I said, proceeding to use magic to make a couple of dirt mounds for us to sit down, if I’m gonna stop, might as well have a drink, I pnned on going without food to begin with, so the idea of wasting energy constantly to keep this going seems to be counterintuitive, plus I am feeling rather peckish anyways.

  I opened the lid, and saw the red liquid being stirred inside the container, Adele got curious and took a gnce into it.

  “Eh? You’re just gonna drink that?”

  “Yep, I know this is weird, but drinking blood it’s the only way to satiate myself, and I don’t need any normal food so, it’s rather inconvenient but I can hold my hunger for long periods of time, so it’s all good”

  Also, the thermos was made as a gift by my precious wife, so I’m gonna try to use it everytime I go out. It’s still much better to drink for the source though, it’s really disgusting despite it not being coaguted, as it has a rather stale taste.

  “Are you a vampire!?”

  “Hn? I don’t think so no, despite what this looks”

  “...”

  “I mean, I can’t turn into a bat, and I can also walk in sunlight, so I’m probably not a vampire”

  “Is that so?”

  “Yep, and what about your food?”

  “I don’t have any”

  “What!? Are you gonna be ok?”

  “Yeah, I don’t have a need for food after all, it’s...”

  “Hmm?”

  “You don’t need to know”

  “If you say so, still you’re weird, you don’t eat, or have a pulse either”

  “E-eh!? How do you know that!?”

  “I just have some very sharp senses and, I can’t hear your heartbeat”

  I then proceeded to look at her closely, she’s still so well covered, not a single thing can be telled from her appearance, just her voice is that of a woman, but that might not even be the case.

  “What are you anyways? Why do you keep covering yourself?”

  “Do you want to know that badly, the cat is out of the bag anyways”

  She said, and then proceeded to take her hood off, finally revealing her face, she’s got quite a youthful face, very much so, but what caught my attention was her pale skin, but not pale in a beauty kind of way, she’s got the color of someone who already passed to better life, ghostly white, and her eyes are dark and not exactly brimming with life, if she pyed dead, she’s definitely getting mistaken by a corpse.

  “This still doesn’t tell me what you are though”

  “I don’t know either, I’m a walking corpse, truth be told even I don’t know my identity”

  “Well you certainly seem completely dead, an undead maybe?”

  “Undead? Aren’t those just myths?”

  “There are no zombies, skeletons and the like?”

  “Not that I’ve heard of”

  “Then you’re the only one? Interesting”

  She’s not a zombie either, plus she’s lucid enough, so a ghoul? But she doesn’t eat flesh, or anything for that matter, maybe a lich would be the closest term?

  “I just cover myself to not get this exact reaction from people”

  “Well, that makes sense, yeah”

  “That’s enough about me, now tell me about you! Why do you know Celestial so closely? What is your retionship with these ruins? Who are you!?”

  Well, she did reveal her identity to me, so I don’t mind telling her.

  “I’m-“

  *crash*

  “Wha!?”

  A sudden earthquake caught us off guard, but it was even worse since the roof suddenly colpsed, flooding the room we were in with water. This is bad, I don’t know how to swim!

  I just took a deep gulp of air and let myself sink to the bottom, water is just another fluid like air after all, I’ll wait for the water to settle and then look for an exit.

  Oh crap! Adele is getting swayed around by the current! It seems she also doesn’t know how to swim, seeing her wild trashing, I saw her struggling around, can she drown if she’s not exactly alive? I’m not all that worried since I can hold my breath for a while, I think.

  Ugh, exit, exit, aha!

  I used magic to pull Adele down, and then I dragged her along the bottom, to the next room really quickly, where there’s a small amount of breathing room, and an upwards ptform in a sort of cove to rest.

  I tossed her up and jumped as well.

  “GASP!!”

  Adele took a deep breath, so it seems she does need air? I don’t know anymore.

  “Are you ok?”

  “Y-yes... thanks...”

  “No problem”

  “Was that another trap of the dungeon?”

  “I doubt it, more like they’re old, and this was just expected”

  “Maybe it’ll help if you didn’t trash the pce”

  “Shh... don’t question my methods”

  “Anyways, oxygen won’t st in this little pce, we have to look for an exit”

  “Yeah, I’ll look underwater to see where we can go”

  “I’ll... umm... scan around here”

  “You can’t swim right?”

  “No...”

  “Worry not, me neither!”

  I said, jumping in the water, and sinking to the bottom.

  “Marisa!!”

  I heard Adele scream, is she worried about me, that’s cute.

  For now, exit, and... oh, this wall looks breakable, it might work but I have break it down a bit.

  Kick attack!

  Wha!? Oh! It’s draining a bit, what’s on the other side?

  Oh, so this way the dungeon continues, and it opens up here, it’s not flooded any deeper.

  “Gasp!”

  Ok, I’m not immune to breathing, it was starting to get bad. Fortunately I can just teleport away if needed, and speaking of teleporting, I have to pick up Adele so she doesn’t die there, or rather, redie? Whatever, teleport!

  “Wha!?”

  “Whoa!?”

  “Marisa!”

  “Yes! Why do you attack me!”

  Adele then bonked me in the head with her staff as soon as I touched her to teleport, it didn’t hurt but it was funny.

  “Sorry! I thought it was a dungeon trap that teleported me! I didn’t know you could use that spell!”

  “Yeah well, it would’ve been difficult to drag you from that room to here”

  “Right, I can’t swim at all, even so don’t scare me like that! I really thought you couldn’t swim!”

  “Oh I can’t”

  “Eh?”

  “I just dashed through the bottom of the water”

  You know, the hippo technique.

  “You were a solid 10 minutes down there! You held your breath the whole time!?”

  “Yep!”

  “Sigh... why do I question it anymore!”

  “Ha! Everyone gets the same reaction when I do things!”

  “Even so, where are we?”

  “No idea, I think this goes deeper into the ruins, but I can’t be sure”

  “Well, we won’t get anywhere standing around, let’s go”

  “Yep, besides, I can just teleport us outside if we can’t continue”

  “...wait, if you can teleport, why don’t you teleport to the end of the dungeon?”

  “I can’t do that, I can only teleport to pces I’ve seen before and remember in my memory”

  Emphasis on remembering, because if the pce it’s bnd as hell I can’t teleport, for example, I couldn’t teleport to a random forest from Welst to here, I need a ndmark or something significant to vision the pce and teleport, fortunately I remember the ruin entrance properly.

  For now, we continued spelunking.

  ...

  ...

  “Monkeys?”

  “Yep, those are definitely monkeys alright”

  “Why are there monkeys here?”

  “No idea, aren’t you the ruins expert?”

  “Uh... but there shouldn’t be any monkeys, of all things”

  “What are they doing here then?”

  “I have no idea”

  They’re odd, at least they’re not hostile, seeing how they tend to avoid us, they just take a gnce towards us and run away.

  “It’s kind of a hostile pce for monkeys isn’t it?”

  “Well not really, this dungeon it’s actually quite tame, there’s no monsters except for the golems of the beginning”

  “Maybe so, but how did they get here?”

  “Maybe another part of the ruin colpsed and they ended up here”

  “So they’re stuck here, sucks for them”

  “They seem to be doing fine though”

  For now, we ignored them and continued walking through the halls, it’s rather dark but I have night vision, and Adele doesn’t seem to have issues either, corridor after corridor, staircase after staircase, there was clearly nothing of interest, not even any more traps.

  “This pce it’s a mess huh?”

  “Yep, it definitely remarks the word ‘ruin’”

  “There’s just something weird about it, seeing how it’s getting recimed by nature, I just don’t understand how”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, we’re way underground now, how could there be so many pnts and foliage, given there’s no sunlight around?”

  Now that she mentioned it, there really are a lot of pnts around, it never caught my attention because they’re just roots and leaves, how come they’re growing under here.

  “...that’s one heck of a question, how does that work!?”

  “I have no clue, I just thought the pce was getting swallowed by the nearby forest, but these pnts, they’re not only just roots, they’re fully functional forest flora”

  “Hmm... they even grew through the ruins brick floor it seems, rather odd”

  “Well, for one I really like this pce! There’s pnts but no sunlight, I’ve never seen something like this!”

  “Do you dislike sunlight?”

  “Yes, it’s another reason I always use this thick clothes and hood, for some reason the sun bothers me a lot”

  That expins why she hasn’t put her hood back since we had our little break.

  “It sounds like your current existence sucks”

  “It has its upsides I guess, but I’d rather be human again”

  “You were human before?”

  “Obviously, I wasn’t born like this I’ll have you know”

  “I actually don’t know, how did you turn into the undead that you are then?”

  “I... rather not talk about that”

  Hmm... given the sad look in her eyes, I shouldn’t pry, probably.

  “Sorry”

  “...”

  “...”

  This got awkward all of a sudden! I have to think about something to lift the mood or-

  “A-and what about you? You’re a demon right? How come you have to drink blood to survive?”

  “I don’t know? I ‘WAS’ born this way”

  “You poor thing, that means you’ve never tasted actual food then?”

  “Eh? What do you mean?”

  “You know, normal food tastes like sand and all of that”

  “What are you talking about? Food tastes like food”

  “Wait! You can actually taste food? Then the vampire myths are a lie?”

  “I told you I’m not a vampire, I can eat food”

  “Then why do you drink blood then? Why would normal food don’t work”

  “I don’t know, I can eat normal food, but it doesn’t matter how much I eat, my hunger never stops unless I drink blood”

  “You’re an odd one Marisa”

  “Yes! I’m one of a kind!”

  “It wasn’t a... compliment...”

  “Whoa”

  Adele stuttered because the scene as we entered the next room caught our attention.

  It was like a picture of paradise, trees and foliage made the look of a lush jungle, a ke dead in the middle, huge and rather deep, clear enough that I could see fish on it, on the ceiling there’s stones that illuminate the room, kinda like the dwarf city, but the scenery just make the shine almost otherworldly, and on this huge jungle room, there’s monkeys living in it.

  “This paradise for just monkeys?”

  “No wonder they were doing so well underground”

  “Still, now we have to trek through the jungle to go deeper, what a pain!”

  “Don’t say that, this pce it’s quite beautiful!”

  “...then my idea of burning it down to continue would be rejected then”

  “Completely!”

  Sigh... fine, it’s pretty and all of that, but I really am getting bored of the dungeon, I expected something more interesting, or even more puzzles to begin with, there has been barely anything since we entered.

  Anyways, after another while of jungle threading and another corridor, we arrived in a rge room, with a pedestal, and in said pedestal there’s a staff floating on the air.

  “Whoa! Is that!”

  Adele then rushed to it without a care in the world.

  “I see! So that’s how it is!”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “This wand! It’s a magic catalyst attuned to nature!”

  “And that means?”

  “For one, it’s a really powerful catalyst, and second, it’s the reason this pce it’s so lush! All the greens were created by this wand!”

  “I see”

  “Good thing we reached the end of the dungeon! And it’s such a cool artifact!”

  “The end?”

  I looked at Adele, she’s holding the wand, almost like protecting it and giving me the looks.

  “That isn’t what I came for, this can’t be the end”

  “Eh? But there’s no more way to go”

  “That’s not the thing I’m looking for, there has to be more”

  “W-well, if you don’t want it then I’ll take it!”

  “Hmm... although the wand could be convenient in growing crops and other things”

  “I won’t hand it to you!”

  “Chill, it’s not THAT important, keep it then, but if we find what I’m looking for I’ll keep that! Deal?”

  “Ugh... how about I pay you instead?”

  “Eh?”

  “Un! Say your price! I’ll pay you as an adventurer for helping me, but I’ll keep all the artifacts”

  “Well I don’t mind that wand but...”

  “Just state your price!”

  “I-”

  Whoa!? We just got attacked, and by that I mean a monkey jumped us with malicious intent, Adele dodged, since the attack was directed at her.

  That monkey it’s pissed! It’s looking at Adele with murder written all over its face!

  “What’s wrong with you!?”

  “Careful Adele!”

  As the monkey jumped Adele again, she simply swung the wand at the monkey, sending him flying, and hitting the wall. It was quite violent. The poor monkey it’s bleeding quite a bit.

  “You called me forceful!? Poor monkey”

  “He’s the one who attacked me!”

  We then looked at the monkey, who got up and flinched in pain, but proceeded to attack Adele again, or try to at least, I don’t know how hard she hit the monkey, but it fell to the ground. Now it’s crawling to Adele.

  “Let’s leave!”

  “Ok?”

  We ran leaving the monkey behind, I feel bad for it but if I heal him then he’s just gonna attack us again. On that note, as we headed out we were jumped by even more monkeys.

  “What’s up with the monkeys!?”

  “I don’t know, they didn’t seem hostile before! Maybe it’s the wand? It makes you a monkey target”

  “I don’t know, just keep running!”

  We continued, pushing monkeys left and right, but when we reached the main jungle room, we realized why they were so altered. The jungle paradise looks depressed, like it’s gonna start to wilt any second.

  “I think I get why the monkeys were mad now”

  “This jungle... so it was sustained by the wand in the pedestal after all”

  “Seems like it”

  The monkeys are looking at us, some attack us, others just gre at us, it’s obvious that they hold hostilities about our actions.

  “...how likely are the monkeys to survive?”

  Adele asked me with concern on her face.

  “I think they’ll die, we flooded the entrance so they can’t leave, and without pnts the whole pce goes to shit”

  “Can’t you teleport them outside”

  “I don’t know how many monkeys or trips that would take, let alone if they’ll be happy with the outside world, or cooperate to begin with”

  Adele then looked at the wand in her hands.

  “Let’s pce the wand back”

  “Eh!? But you were arguing with me a second ago!”

  “I know but...”

  “Are you worried about the monkeys? I mean it’ll suck if they died, but they’re just animals, isn’t the wand wasted if all it does it’s sustain a monkey popution? Plus maybe they can find a way to survive or escape this pce!”

  “Even so, I... I’d feel bad about it! Destroying their home like this”

  “Sigh... let’s go back to that pedestal then”

  “It’s fine... I’ll still pay you the rights for the wand as I promised!”

  “There’s no need, I didn’t pn on taking it in the first pce”

  “Marisa...”

  “Let’s go then”

  And after a quick agreement we set back, I healed all the monkeys on the way there, and we evaded a lot of attacks too, but we got back to the room and pced the wand back.

  Then we left again.

  Back in the jungle room, everything looks like it went back to normal, the monkeys didn’t attack us anymore, but I could feel their disdain in their gaze.

  “Now what?”

  “We keep looking of course”

  “What are you looking for? I doubt there’s anything left in this pce, or if it was, it’s probably colpsed or inaccessible”

  “Hmm...”

  Think, where else could you hide a room or path? Let my video game experience guide me!

  “What... are you doing?”

  “Looking for hidden passages!”

  “By tapping on random walls?”

  Yep, I’m with my ear on the wall, tapping it to see if I can hear the pce next to the wall as hollow. Sadly my ear is long, and the horn gets in the way, it’s a bit uncomfortable.

  “I doubt there’s anything”

  “Hmm... but that can’t be the case”

  Maybe the floor, or the roof?

  “Aha!”

  “What is it?”

  “Here probably!”

  I said, jumping in the middle ke again.

  Then I sank to the bottom, god it’s pretty deep, but as I thought, there’s a narrow cave here in the bottom, I entered, and met a small room there’s a few caves in here, but this one looked more promising, for now I walk through these underwater caves.

  This one also goes up, so I decided to jump to reach the surface again. Or tried to at least! It’s too tall to jump and the water density isn’t helping, for now I went rock climbing from the side of the cave, I probably could have jumped it if I put my back into it though.

  “Puah!”

  Exit! And air! I’m seriously pushing my lungs today.

  Hmm...

  It’s dark, where to now?

  There’s a huge lever over there, a trap? fuck it, what’s the worst that could happen! I pulled it and the wall that is next to said lever opened in front of me, what I found after the passage opened was, Adele of all things, this connects to the jungle room.

  “Heyo!”

  “Marisa!”

  “See! I told you there were hidden passages!”

  “Whoa!! How did you get here!”

  “Through there”

  I said, pointing at the body of water.

  “But who would be able to swim through that! Oh! Another room!”

  Adele then dashed to the other side of the opened room.

  “This!”

  In the room there was another pedestal, but this one had a small box in it, Adele rushed to it, and opened it, yelling with excitement.

  “It’s one of the legendary 12 heroes ring!”

  “Oh! It is!”

  I was gonna grab it but Adele pulled it away from reach.

  “That’s what I was looking for!”

  “Eh!? Why do you want this? It’s useless to you!”

  “Same thing to you! Give it!”

  Adele closed the box and it’s trying to get the ring away from me. I was proud of my reaction speed, but Adele it’s just as good, seeing that she’s avoiding me skillfully.

  “Give it!!”

  “Why do you want it!? It’s important enough to be in a museum! You’re just gonna break it!”

  “What would you know! Are you pnning on selling it to a museum! Just give it here!”

  “But I found it!”

  “Lies! If it wasn’t for me you would’ve returned empty handed!”

  “Ugh! But I can’t let a brute like you have something priceless like this!”

  “Just give me the ring!”

  I said, tackling her, but she turned into mist so I went through her.

  “You could do that!?”

  “Yeah!”

  “You stupid! You could’ve passed through the first gate like that!”

  Looking at her face of realization I can see that she didn’t think of that, she’s surprisingly dumb sometimes huh?

  “W-well you can teleport as well! Why didn’t you just teleport past the gates!?”

  “... T-that’s nothing to do with this! Just give me the ring!”

  “Why do you want it anyways!?”

  I’m getting tired of this, using a bit more brute force and speed I managed to swipe at the box, I couldn’t grab it, but I did toss it off her hands, making the rusty and bck ring fly off the box.

  “Ah!”

  “Aha!”

  We both dashed for the ring, grabbing it at the same time, which then prompted the ring to shine and regain its silvery-gold color, as well as the blue gem and symbol.

  “Wha?...”

  “Mine!”

  I said, pulling the ring and getting it off Adele’s hand.

  “Phew...”

  “That...”

  “I won’t give you this ring! Fight me!”

  “Were you descendent of one of the heroes? But who might this ring be from, you’re... who are you?”

  “One of the heroes? I don’t know them but, I guess I never introduced myself, I’m Marisa! Daughter of Queen Hestia and the demon king Maldi apparently!”

  “You’re... t-that’s!”

  It seems she finally realized my identity, not like it was a secret to begin with.

  “I see, so that ring belonged to your mother, and you were trying to retrieve it...”

  “Eh? Yes”

  “...”

  “...”

  “Why are you looking at me like that?”

  “Nothing, you can keep the ring”

  “Wait really!?”

  “Un... you’ll probably give it a better use than me”

  “That’s... I’ll be honest, I’m pnning to give this ring to someone else”

  “That’s! I see... so that’s how it is”

  “I think you understand, sorry for the troubles I put you through”

  “It’s fine, even so, the person you’re giving this ring must be pretty strong huh?”

  “Eh? I guess, but I think you’re far stronger than her though”

  “Wait really!? How many rings do you have?”

  “This would be my second, uh, third if you count Celestial’s ring, she still have hers from way back then”

  “Then... Marisa?”

  “Yes?”

  “I know this might sound a bit cocky on my part but, would you consider giving that ring to me instead?”

  “Eh? You want it that badly, I’m sorry but-“

  “Please! I promise to devote myself! I’ll carry this legacy with utmost pride!”

  “Umm, Adele you might be mistaken, this ring-”

  “I’m not mistaken! I wish to accompany you! To write history next to you! I want to be your strength!”

  “I! Do you know what you’re saying!? Are you sure?”

  “I’ve never been more certain of anything in my life!”

  Is she proposing to me! This is new! I’ve... I’m sure she’s mistaken, but my face is bright red, I haven’t been this flustered since my wedding with Rushka! Looking at Adele, I can’t help but feel flustered, she’s rather pretty, and looking at me with those determined bck eyes. She doesn’t even flinch.

  “Do you even know what this means?”

  “I do”

  “And you still want to take this ring?”

  “Most certainly!”

  Ugh... but this ring was meant for Heather! Although she’s right that there’s another 9 rings to get, ugh... but she’s so serious! And her clumsiness it’s somewhat charming too!

  Fine!

  “I-if you’re ok with me, then I don’t mind”

  “I’d be gd to be together with you!”

  “Then, give me your hand”

  “Of course!”

  I then pced the ring on her finger.

  “Ah! Thank you so much!”

  She then jumped to hug me, I’ve never seen someone this excited.

  “Oh sorry!”

  “It’s ok, I don’t mind”

  “With this I’m finally...”

  “Yep...”

  “A hero!”

  “My wife!”

  We both said in unison, and then we looked at each other in confusion.

  Joanne_carper