I FOLLOWED LUNAÈRE DEEPER into the dungeon. In almost no time, she had killed five monsters.
Her latest victim was collapsed on the floor in front of us, covered in blood. It had two glittering, golden, bird-like heads, and its body looked like a golden bodybuilder. Well, that’s how it used to look—now the chicken heads were a few meters away from the rest of the body. Its other limbs were scattered around the hallway.
It was apparently a type of monster called a ra. I wondered if people in Locklore knew how pretentious that was.
This ra had swooped down at us with unbelievable speed, breathing fire from its two beaks and burning everything ahead of it with intense flame. I thought I was done for, but Lunaère lunged forward and sliced the gold creature into pieces with her stone sword. She was seriously overpowered.
“Space-Time Magic Level 8: Dimension Pocket.”
Lunaère opened a magic circle and shoved the ra’s dead body inside. I wasn’t sure why she collected the bodies of dead monsters, but I was afraid to ask. Maybe she used them for potions?
“There’s nothing like fresh chicken for dinner,” she said.
“Dinner?!”
“Is there a problem?” she asked, her expression blank, though confusion crept into her voice.
“I-I just think its looks a bit too human.”
“To me, it looks more like an…overgrown bird.”
That was a weird use of the word overgrown.
“All right, fine,” she said. “I can’t have you starving to death. If you’d rather have the bird-like parts, you can eat the heads.”
The giant glittering heads weren’t what I had in mind when I thought of golden fried chicken. They didn’t look edible at all. On the other hand, it occurred to me that there probably weren’t many appetizing food options in the bottom of a dungeon.
“Fine. I’ll eat the heads,” I sighed.
I followed Lunaère through Cocytus a little farther, and we reached a place that was brighter and warmer than any part of the dungeon that I’d seen so far. Oddly, there was dirt under our feet. It didn’t seem like the dirt was actually the ground, though. It looked more like a thick layer of soil had been laid over the stone floor.
Grass and even a few rows of pretty flowers grew from the ground. There was also a tree loaded with strange red fruit with white speckles. Somehow, these plants had grown deep underground. Farther into the camp was a large cat sculpture. A bright crystal in its mouth shone with a red light.
“Is that crystal emitting sunlight?” I asked mostly to myself, but Lunaère must have heard.
“Good guess. It’s a sun stone. Worth quite a lot in the outside world because it’s even better for plants than the real sun. Wars have been fought over them on the surface, but they’re just another item that’s scattered about down here.”
Naiarotop wasn’t lying then, at least about the powerful items.
“I wanted one, so I went down to the ninety-fifth floor to look for it. I took it from a gem-loving dragon.”
Isn’t that…burglary?
“We negotiated a deal. I offered not to kill it in exchange for the gem.”
No, that’s robbery.
“It had attacked me with every intention of killing me, after all,” continued Lunaère.
“Ha ha! I see…” Self-defense, then?
Then I asked, “What’s with the weird cat statue? Is it meant to be a sun god or something?”
“…I made the statue for fun as a holder for the stone.”
Crap. I shouldn’t have called it weird—maybe she just really likes cute things. Her eyes look tense. I hope I haven’t made her angry.
Lunaère walked ahead through her garden, which she seemed to enjoy. She had to have been the one who created this space. I doubted that any other monster would have laid down all this soil just to grow some flowers. For someone so unsettling, she had some really cute hobbies. Maybe the scary aura was just part of being a lich?
“This is a nice garden, and the flowers are really pretty. I could get used to it here.”
“No need for flattery,” she said. Her steps became a little lighter, even though she kept her face blank. I hoped I was getting better at reading her.
I walked peacefully through her plants, enjoying the moment, until a cold fluid splattered against my hand.
“Aaah!”
It was clear and slimy.
“Why are you being so loud?” asked Lunaère.
“I got slimed by—” I began before looking in the direction the fluid came from. On closer inspection, the flowers had mouths tucked inside their petals, and they were oozing saliva. Gross, but I didn’t want to ruin the compliment I’d just given Lunaère.
“I-it was nothing.”
“Then try to keep noise to a minimum. But tell me if something is wrong, or otherwise I’ll be annoyed when I find out about it later.”
That seemed reasonable—which was exactly why I wanted to keep her happy. I just nodded and wiped my hand off on my pants.
“And this is my camp,” said Lunaère.
She pointed to a large white hut. It reminded me of a yurt, a sort of tent used by nomadic tribes. It had a rounded frame and a pitched roof, all tightly covered with white cloth.
A vegetable field stood next to it.
It’s a little piece of civilization?! Maybe there’s more on tonight’s menu than that Macho Hen!
“I’d rather not invite a human in, but I can’t have you just wandering around getting yourself killed,” said Lunaère with a sigh as she stood, arms folded, in front of her yurt.
“Really, thank you so much, Master.”
“Don’t bother acting considerate. Humans are like insects to me, so it’s like having a fruit fly in the house.”
Lunaère began to open the door flap to go inside and then froze. She glanced in my direction from the corner of her emerald eye but looked away as soon as our eyes met.
“Is something wrong?” I asked, and she turned to face me, placing her body between me and the yurt’s entrance.
“Would you mind waiting here for a moment? Don’t move. At all,” she said.
“Master?”
Lunaère ducked into the hut, which soon began to emit loud, strange sounds. I even heard a small explosion.
“Master…i-is everything all right?” I called, but there was no reply. Even though Lunaère was only a few meters away, I started to feel a bit lonely and nervous standing around in the depths of Cocytus.
I shuffled a little closer, trying to get a peek through the crack in the tent’s door. Lunaère was stuffing books, bones, and other litter into the mouth of a monster. It was quite a fancy monster too. It looked like a treasure chest trimmed with gold, gemstones, and a mouth full of ivory teeth.
“Lay off, I’m full…” it said with a burp.
“Well, hurry up and swallow! I can’t keep him waiting forever.” Lunaère hissed, pushing another object in despite the treasure chest’s protest. Maybe it used the same magic as Lunaère’s Dimension Pocket. Speaking of which, why was she force-feeding the chest instead of using that spell? The treasure chest was suffering some serious indigestion by the looks of it.
Besides Lunaère and the chest, two headless clay statues were using rags to dust the inside of the hut.