Nnghh...so hungry...
"*Groooooowl*"
Irkh...
Ais could only sit there on her knees and hold her growling stomach. The feeling of hunger was strong enough that she couldn´t move at all, it felt like all of her strength had left her body. She had to swallow more than one time, saliva pooled in her mouth, her hunger got so strong that her stomach hurt. For Ais Wallenstein, hunger was one of the most unpleasant of feelings...and that was the exact reason why she reacted like this. Every member of the party that got hit by the pollen, reacted in a different way, that was the most unpleasent for them.
In Tiona´s case, a very lively, happy amazon, feeling so tired was torture. She didn´t felt like doing anything at all, not exploring anything or do something fun...Tiona didn´t even felt like fighting...and she normally loved to fight. For Alicia and Lefiya, the reason was the same, they were afraid of embarrassing themselves in front of others.
The body reaction for that was in Lefiya´s case a very strong urge to urinate, in Alicia´s, strong period-related nausea. For Tione it was that she wouldn´t be able to fight the urge of her race, she wanted to wait for her wedding night before she became one with Finn.
But poor Riveria was possibly the worst hit...she had hot flashes from old age. Of course she was still quite young for an elf...more or less...but she didn't like being called old. Her biggest fear right now was being seen as old.
And for Bete...the pollen lulled him into a hallucination...to him it looked as if the dryad wanted to kill Lena...a heavily pregnant Lena. His greatest fear made him the most dangerous opponent for the plant monster.
"Take your hands off Lena!"
His fury due to the hallucination and his speed, made him the perfect partner for Bell at the moment. Bete had trained often enough with Bell and Ais, not only before the wargame, but also to prepare for the Expedition. On an instinctive level, the enraged Bete worked with Bell.
Something like a fighting respect had formed between them, Bete recognized Bell as someone who could really howl.
The dryad screeched, the monsters were as little used to adventurers as adventurers were to the monsters of this floor.
In the end, while the dryad still attacked Tsubaki and Gareth, it wasn´t Bell that defeated the plant monster, but Bete. The Dryad attempted to protect her inner torso by sealing her wooden ribcage...or so she tried. Bete landed on her chest with a scream of rage and pried the wood apart. The monster's eyes widened in shock.
"You dare to threaten my wife?! My Lena?! MY CHILDREN?!"
The hallucination let him believe that his heavily pregnant newlywed wife was threatened by the monster...but only in the hallucnation, was Lena that heavily pregnant. Her belly had started to swell, but not to this point...it didn´t mattered for Bete.
Instead of reaching the magic stone...Bete...well...he ripped the Dryad´s head off...
.
.
The spore cloud's density gradually began to thin after the dryad exploded to ash. More than one member of the expedition was on his or her knees coughing, trying desperately to breathe freely again.
Tiona tried to lift her face, but it was useless. Her hand weakly held the hilt of Urga III, she could barely hold her eyes open and all sounds were muffled for her.
What...is...happening...?...
Sounds of a struggle, something like muffled explosions and screeches filled the air around her. A few members were able to get back on their feet, but Tiona didn't see who was fighting there...or what.
Eventually, the effect got too strong on Tiona...way more spores were on her body than on the others...Tiona slopped to the ground and fell asleep...her mind was too hazy to panic, falling asleep like that could mean death in the dungeon.
.
.
Mmnnhhh...
"Oy...wake up...sleepyhead..."
Something or someone slapped her on the forehead.
Tiona fought the hardest fight of her life... to open her eyes.
"Guess there is no helping it..."
And then...
"Puha!"
Suddenly, cold water splashed into Tiona´s face and she woke up immediately.
"*Cough* *Cough* *Cough* Tione! What are you doing?!"
"Your face was full with these weird spores, I thought you would wake up faster this way."
"Can´t you wake me up in a more gentle way, once?!"
"Nope."
Tiona wiped the water out of her face, it felt weird and sticky, due to the spores that still clung to her face. But she had to admit, what Tione had done helped, Tiona was finally able to get fully awake again.
"What happened, are we in-"
"Calm down, the attack is over."
Tiona still grabbed the hilt of her weapon, but looked around. Most of the party members were back on their feet...it looked like they had fought more than one monster. Bete was still shaking because of his trembling muscles, bared his teeth and growled slightly...but calmed down more and more. His face was also wet, someone had splashed water on his face from a drinking bottle. To help himself relax and calm down more, he pulled something out from under his shirt, he was carrying a lock of Lena's hair on a string...that smell helped very much. Tiona's eyes wandered on, she saw Bell standing with his sword and knife in hands and looked slowly around, magic stones were scattered around his feet.
Gareth stood a bit away...on a small hill of magic stones...
"These plant things really had something against Gareth and Cyclops."
"Do you think because of their weapons? Because they were trees and such?"
"Maybe, this is the dungeon after all."
"What´s with Bete?"
"Shouted something about Lena all the time...looks like he was hallucinating."
"Wow...he really loves her."
"Looks like it."
"Lena...my Lena..."
Everyone in the party that wanted to keep all of their teeth, pretended to not hear Bete as he murmured about his wife right now.
On the other hand...
"*GROWL*!"
The amazon twins raised their weapons alerted...then they heard a groan.
Ais was curled up to a ball, whimpered and groaned.
"Ai-"
"Ais!"
Bell moved faster than anyone else.
Wow...he forgets everything when Ais isn´t feeling well...how cute.
He landed on his knees next to her, pulling something out from the pouch of his belt...and it wasn´t a potion. Paper flew away as he unwrapped something.
"Ais!"
"Be...ll..."
"Here!"
"Hiii! *Nom*!"
It was...an emergency snack. Bell had bought a few from the hospital in Orario, he had seen once how Amid ate one and asked her what it was. At first, it was meant for the hospital staff, it was very filling and contained many important things that the body needed.
After Bell got curious about it and asked if they would sell these things...somehow the god Dian Cecht heard this question even when he was in another building...it was a chance to make more money.
Now the hospital sold these bars in different sizes to suit different races and adventurer types...since physically combatants needed more nutrients than, for example, mages. Bell bought a lot of them...not directly for himself...but as an emergency ration for Ais...and himself.
He had learned from his "adventure" on the 37th Floor and always kept something to eat and drink on his body, just in case something happened.
Ais didn't eat the bar...she wolfed it down like a starved animal. Meanwhile, Bell opened a second and third latch and held out his water bottle. Ais gobbled it all down and washed it down with Bell's water...usually one bar was enough to fill an adult adventurer. Only after all three had disappeared into her stomach and she emptied Bell's bottle did Ais gasp and wipe her mouth.
"Hah...hah...hah...Bell...hah...thank you...hah...I love you..."
"Do you feel better now?"
Ais gently stroked her belly. "Yes, thank you...much better."
While the others' symptoms disappeared after the pollen cleared, Ais's was different. Once awakened, her hunger had to be satisfied. Bell also had learned, that feeding Ais helped in a lot of different situations. Was she nervous? He fed her. Exhausted? Feeding her. Agitated? Well...
He was always amazed at how she retained her almost divinely slim figure... considering how much she was able to eat.
She looked at him with thankful eyes, before she kissed him.
"I´m sorry...I drank all your water."
"No problem...my love."
Before they could kiss again and get lost in each others eyes, someone else groaned and got wobbily up to her feet.
"Ais...Belly...can´t you do that in the camp?...Irkh..."
The young elf grabbed her lower stomach, thankfully the urge left her.
"Lefiya...are you okay?"
"Lef, sorry."
Belly?! Lef?!
Belly?! Lef?!
The amazon sisters looked at each other...they knew that Bell and Lefiya acted like siblings...but nicknames...that was something new. A certain old god could probably explain to them why Bell and Lefiya acted the way they did, their souls reacted in a way to each other, that even Freya couldn´t see. Zeus got regular reports from Hermes...he had to grin as he looked at Bell through his mirror one day.
She loves her big brother so much, that they found each other again...after over a thousand years...impressive.
Thankfully, Lefiya and Alicia got freed from their urges...the latter of the two had walked to Riveria, asking if she needed help.
The adult elf got control of her body again, now her strong adventurer body helped her to recover.
With Bell´s help, Ais got up to her feet and staggered over to Riveria, a worried expression on her face.
"Mo-..Riveria, are you okay?"
Alicia looked a bit...strange.
She wanted to call her Mom just now...
Everyone in the Familia knew how close they were to each other.
.
"Allright everyone, reports."
Finn organized the group once again, waiting for the reports fromt he sub-leaders.
"Just a few scratches, nothing serious."
"No wounded here."
A few more reports followed, they were lucky, the trap turned out far less badly than it could have been.
"A rather unpleasant welcome on this floor."
The party gathered and formed a defensive circle, just in case. But the Floor went silent again, only the soft rustling of the wind in the leaves and the creaking of the trees could be heard. If they didn't know there were monsters here, they would have thought it was a safe zone.
"Okay, I want to know what everyone saw when that..."
Finn looked at Bell.
"Dryad."
"Dryad, thank you Bell."
A few members chuckled, Bell knew more than anyone else about old monsters. They had heard two terms about Bell from Loki, terms that the gods used...but their children didn´t understood really. Loki called him a "Nerd" or "Geek". No one bothered to ask what those words meant exactly, as Loki wasn't the only quirky deity...some gods had really weird ideas. Though mortals were grateful for some of them...like the three great treasures...like...bikinis. Bell was especially grateful for that...but only if Ais was wearing one.
Finn continued. "So, I want to know what everyone saw when that Dryad attacked."
He looked around and to his surprise...Bell raised his hand. The others chuckled again, they didn't expect Bell to be so polite...usually they just started talking.
"I saw something coming out of it´s shoulders and legs, then these capsules on the ground opened."
A few party members looked down, they noticed the opened and empty capsules. A small movement on the ground caught Bell´s attention. There was still one capsule that hadn´t opened...but it started to twitch...and it was right in front of Riveria´s foot.
"Ms. Riveria!"
"Huh?!"
Bell jumped forward, which startled the others a bit. Leaving Olympus near Ais, he drew Vesta from his hip, no one could react before he arrived at Riveria. He landed on his knees and closed the fingers of his left hand around the capsules, putting pressure on it to prevent it from open.
"Raul!"
"On it!"
Bell used Vesta to cut off the capsule from the ground, still holding it together with his other hand. Raul pulled a small bottle and a string out of his enormous backpack and ran over to Bell. They carefully tied the string around the capsule, which had stopped shaking, and slowly inserted it into the small jar.
Finn came over, the spear leaned on his shoulder.
"That was a good reaction Bell."
Riveria had taken a step back when Bell landed on his knees in front of her, she nodded.
"You have my thanks, Bell."
The thought of getting hit by the pollen again...especially as the only person while everyone else was "sober"...to experience the hot flashes again...it would be shameful for Riveria.
"No problem."
Finn put his hand on his chin.
"You have incredible reflexes, to notice the capsule from this distance just because it started twitching."
Bell remained silent.
"Bell?"
"Ahm..."
"Or was there another reason?"
Finn started to smile.
"Could it have something to do with Riveria?"
"Eh?" Riveria looked confused.
Bell got a bit red, but remained silent.
"Could it be, that you have an eye on Riveria? Interested in a middle aged elven Mom?"
"Who is amiddle aged elven Mom?!"
Riveria knew herself that she was one...
The other party members looked shocked, the elves horrified.
"Belly, you already have Ais!"
"First Ms. Ais and now lady Riveria? Filthy!"
Riveria frowned lightly. "Bell? Care to explain?"
Bell took a deep breath and sighed. "I always have my eyes on you, Ms. Riveria."
"Aha..."
"I mean..."
Alicia looked horrified. "Mother and daughter together?! You brute!"
"Alicia...so Bell, what do you mean exactly?"
"You are...kind of...my...mother-in-law...and mean everything for Ais... Also...I couldn´t stand it if such a beautiful, friendly, gentle and helpful woman got hurt."
Riveria´s expression went blank...as well as that of the most others from the party. Finn chuckled at first and then started to laugh...while Riveria´s ears and cheeks got deep red, she wasn´t used to get compliments like that from men.
"Ahahaha! You are such a refreshing guy, Bell Cranel."
"Gyahahaha! Haven´t seen our elf embarrassed like that in a long time!" Gareth joined the laughter.
Riveria tried to regain her posture. "Wh-What are you saying, Bell Cranel? Also shut up you dwarven savage and small devil!"
That she called him by his full name was a sign that she was either upset or embarrassed...and many people heard for the first time how it sounded when Riveria quarreled with the other two leaders. Sometimes they needed to do that to vent a bit stress...but it was always a friendly quarrel...to see who would be the most...creative.
But Bell looked at her with an innocent expression. "I mean, you are like a Mom for Ais...and since we are married...I thought..."
Kuh...
Finn´s and Gareth´s grins widened. ""Mommy...""
"Wh-Who is a Mom?!"
Alicia stormed to Riveria´s side, to scold Bell. "Bell Cranel, show some respect to Lady Riveria! Saying that you have your eyes on her all the time. I can´t allow that you flirt with her or try to seduce her!"
"Alicia is right, Bell!" When it came to Riveria, Lefiya also got easily agitated.
"Flirt and seduce? I just stated facts. And I have my eyes also on you two all the time."
""Huh?!"" Both elves got red.
"Ahm...Lef...I mean Lefiya is...well...like a sister for me. So you are really precious to me. And you are really pretty too."
For some reason, Lefiya looked really happy when he said that out loud.
"And you are part of this Familia and very precious for the others here, Ms. Alicia...so I also keep an eye on you, in case something happens. And you also are very beautiful."
Bell couldn´t fight his nature, he had the strong urge to watch over and protect women, regardless if they were strong or not. Alicia´s words died out and Lefiya beamed happy...since it was Bell, it was easy to believe these words, since he had no ulterior motives...didn't knew any ulterior motives...wasn't capable of it.
Finn tapped the ground once with the shaft of his spear.
"Allright, back to topic. Your reaction was excelent, Bell. You too, Raul."
"Thanks, general!"
"Thank you, Mr. Finn."
"But why did you caught the capsule?"
"You said before the expedition that we should take samples from all sorts of things. I figured these capsules might be useful in some way. Since the pollen doesn't appear to have any direct harmful effect...it could be used as a distraction or something."
"Someone rememberred my orders, good."
A faint clapping sound was heard, Ais made an amazed face and clapped slightly.
Finn winked. "You always forget these orders, Ais. Take an example from your husband."
"I will!"
.
.
The party remained a moment in this place, picked up the magic stones and watched the capsules, they slowly started to close again, but were much smaller than before...maybe they needed time to produce new pollen.
Riveria leaned forward and watched a few of these capsules.
"Hmmm, if we can figure out how long it takes for them to refill completely, then we could harvest them before they erupt again. And I assume that the massive shaking of us and the dryad caused the outbreak."
Finn nodded. "Then we have to be careful while we move."
After thinking for a moment, Finn waved over Raul.
"Raul, you have an axe among your weapons, right?"
"Yes, general!"
"Then pleas exchange your sword with that axe."
"Okay, but may I ask why?"
"I noticed that the dryad and the smaller ones..."
The reinforcments for the dryad were smaller dryads, but they looked like they were completely made out of wood.
"Were focussed on Gareth and Tsubaki. I want to test if that has something to do with their axes."
"But why me?!"
"Because you are in the middle of our group. If a few monsters try to get to you and ignore the others, we can easily lure them in traps."
"Alright..."
"Don´t worry Raul, I won´t risk Aki´s wrath by letting you get hurt."
"Thanks...general..."
Before they started to move again, Finn thought about something else.
"Bell, Ais."
""Yes?""
Hehe.
Even Finn had to admit it was quite cute how they acted together.
"I have a special job for you two. Ais with your wind you can move without touching the ground, since it can be quite windy here, I assume the capsules won´t open from getting touched by wind. So in case we find more, I would like you to move with your wind, with Bell at your side."
"Ahm, Mr. Finn. While our skill allowes me to use a bit of Ais´ wind, I can´t really control it like her."
"That wasn´t what I meant, you are quite agile, so you can move along the trees behind Ais and together you can cut off the capsules. It will be quieter than to blast them away and we can harvest them."
""Understood.""
"Oy Finn, why can´t I do that?"
Bete walked over to him...he had quite the rivalry with Bell...similar to Lefiya. While they made quite a good team...yet Bete refused to call Bell a friend...because Bete was Bete...he also didn´t wanted to stay behind.
"Oh the reason is simple, do you have a knife, Bete?"
"No?"
"See?"
"Hmpf. I can take one."
"But are you a true master with that weapon? Your dolans are way too long for that work."
"Guess not."
"Also, I need your speed and brutal attacks in case another dryad attacks while Bell and Ais do that, you seem to be the perfect opponent for them. Guarding these two while they work is a job that not everyone can do. In fact, I wanted to ask you of doing that as soon as I was finished with Bell and Ais."
"Oh..."
Finn smiled. "But it is nice to see that you care so much about your party members, that you want to take the risk for them."
"Tch...don´t put words in my mouth..."
Bete glared at the others, who looked away and whistled innocent...they all knew...Bete included...that Finn´s words were right.
.
.
The party moved on, fighting a few times against the smaller dryads and two times against a big one. The first one of them got down pretty fast and easy, before Finn could even give an order, Bell fired his magic, Ais reinforced him with her wind.
The wave of fire hit the big dryad right as it wanted to fire it´s own capsules, all of them burned up and detonated like small bombs. The small explosions itself didn´t did much to the dryad, but the fire scorched it pretty bad, since it couldn´t hide it´s true upper body behind the wooden thorax in time.
Nothing on this floor could produce fire on it´s own, so the monsters didn´t knew anything about this. Confused, scorched and robbed from it´s strongest weapon, the dryad soon was defeated.
And for the third one, they hid Tsubaki and Gareth from it´s sight, showing Raul with his axe openly. The dryad screeched loud and charged towards Raul, before it could reach him, Gareth and Tsubaki jumped in from their hideouts and gave the dryad a reason to fear and hate axes.
While they moved, they marked the way they came, by tying brightly colored ribbons to branches and trunks. Bell came up with the idea to just leave cut marks, but the dungeon would probably regenerate that.
But they also used mapping and the most simple method of all, sometimes Ais, Bell or Bete climbed up a tree and looked around, to make sure their sense of direction was correct. The most important thing for the beginning, was not to move too far away from the entrance. One time again they encountered a field of capsules and tested their tactic, they managed to cut around one third, before the others exploded all together. Ais´ wind protected her this time and Bell was immune anyway, but she moved towards him, since others could get hit by the effect of the spores on his clothes, skin and hair.
They waited for a while and fought off the monsters that came charging in after that, it seemed like the capsules were also some kind of alarm system. But thanks to the idea of Finn, they maanged to get their hands on twenty capsules in total.
The party kept track about how far they moved away from the entrance, they had to move slowly so that the supporters that were busy mapping, could keep up. Thankfully, they weren´t attacked by monsters all the time, so they had chances to take a break.
During one of these breaks, Bell moved along the party, he wanted to talk to someone.
"Lefiya?"
"Bell, how can I help you?"
"You have more knowledge about magic than I do."
"Uh eh...yeah, I think so?"
"And you are capable of at least two fire spells. What do you think would happen if we used big fire magic spells in here? My own Firebolt didn´t seemed to do that much to the trees."
"Hmmm." She tapped her chin.
"I think my fire arrow spell wouldn´t work really well here, the trees are sometimes to close to each other, so it wouldn´t go far and only scorch the trees. As for Rea Laevateinn, that might trigger an inferno. As for..."that"...spell...I don´t even want to imagine what would happen here...we would probably burn the whole floor."
With "that" Lefiya meant the Rhánaan Daand´r, her combination with Riveria, boosted by Bell. Riveria asked them and Amid to not say that name out loud. It was something of their last weapon...but incredibly dangerous, the name alone conjured up bad omens.
"Hmm...I wonder if Ice magic would work well on these plant monsters...maybe slow them down a lot."
"I think the problem would be the environment again, the big magic spell aside, Alicia´s magic also hits a wider range...what about your lightning magic?"
"Hm, well I can´t really control it, it is just a chance. Against one of the smaller dryads, it triggered, but it just shrugged it off like it was nothing."
"Hm and yet trees in my forest got destroyed by lightning in big storms."
"I don´t think my lightning is as strong as one that comes down from heaven."
"And Olympus?"
"I didn´t tested it, I want to save it."
"You should still test it at least one time, just in case you need it, use it and it turns out to be useless."
"You call my precious sword useless, Lef?!"
"Argh...you now what I mean, Belly."
Alicia, who heard them talking, looked from the side. Lefiya had to have a really high opinion of him, to allow Bell to act like that with her. In the past it would have been unthinkable for most of the elves of the Loki Familia, to act like that with another race.
Well who am I to judge.
Alicia herself had changed too, she wore a blue feather in her hair as an accessory. Some had complimented her about that feather, that it was so beautiful and suited her really well. It was a gift from Rei, Tione also wore one from time to time. Both women had become good friends with the siren.
Bell imagined Lefiya wearing one of these feathers, maybe two or three.
It would look good on her...maybe in combination with a dress.
He had only seen her wearing a dress once, would like to do it more often.
I guess at least at her weddi-...
"*Gasp*!"
Suddenly, Bell made a strange noise.
"Bell?"
"It just dawned to me...but...no...I can´t take it..."
Lefiya looked worried. "You okay?"
"I just...imagined...one day..."
He looked unhappy to Lefiya.
"Someone...will court my precious, little sister."
"Huh?!" Lefiya got red by Bell´s comment. "Wh-Wh-What are you saying?!"
"I mean...some day you might fall in love with someone. The thought of it...someone might lay their eyes on you...hold your hands..."
"S-Stupid Belly! That is something to be done after marriage! Otherwise that´s lewd and filthy!"
"Huh?!" Ais was not too far away from them and heard Lefiya´s yell.
She and Bell had done a lot more things than holding hands before they married. "L-Lewd? F-Filthy?"
"Aaah, Ms. Ais...I didn´t mean it like that. You two aren´t elves...w-we think otherwise about that. R-Right, lady Riveria?"
"That is correct. Things like holding hands or kissing should be done after oathing each other."
"Oathing?" Bell looked at Lefiya.
"We elves don´t marry like other races. Elves swear and oath to each other, where and when depends on the forest or the elves. We bind ourself forever to our partner and in most cases it is just the couple alone."
"Sounds romantic."
"It is!"
Riveria sighed. "I wonder how you two went from a question about magic to use on this floor...to love and marriage."
"Well...ahaha..."
"Mmmh..." Lefiya got red.
Not that she blamed Lefiya, she was always curios about love...pretty similar to the harpy Fia in that matter...which Lefiya got along with pretty well. After the fight in Knossos, the Loki Familia and the Xenos formed something like a pact...and some Familia members and Xenos became friends.
.
.
A short while later, the party stopped when they arrived at a small clearing in the forest. The trees here looked different than before and Shrubs grew everywhere here...shrubs with...fruits. The trees also carried something...it looked a bit different from fruits.
"Is this...a gift from the dungeon?"
"Everyone, stop. We take a break here."
The others came to a stop and right when Bell wanted to sit down with Ais...
"Bell, Ais. I need you two."
""Coming.""
Finn discussed something with Raul for a moment, before the human went to get a few supporters.
"I have an important job for you two."
Both waited.
"Bell, I would like you to taste test some of these fruits, and these things hanging in the trees."
"Ahm...why me?"
Finn smirked and winked. "Because you have Miasma resistance, if they are poisonous, nothing will happen to you except that you will have a disgusting taste in your mouth."
"Makes sense...I guess."
"Finn, what will I have to do?"
"You share some of Bell´s resistance, I want you to taste test it after him, in case his immunity don´t let him taste it, you are the next in line. And when you two give the okay, I will test it."
"Captain, that is too dangerous for you!"
"No Tione, I will not give any order that I would not carry out myself."
Looks... like I'm the guinea pig now.
It was a logical decision, but Bell smiled wryly. So while the others took a break, Bell went to the first bush. The "fruit" resembled a paprika, all of them were red. He carefully picked one and took the knife that Ais handed him...there was no way he would just bite into it.
Carefully...keeping the fruit well away from him...Bell cut off a portion and waited a moment. Poison alone wasn't the only danger...he didn't want to imagine what would happen to his teeth...if the fruit contained some kind of acid.
After waiting a minute, he moved closer and sniffed at it. Nothing seemed to be bad, so he took a small bite. Fruits in the dungeon were nothing new, so there was a good chance that these were exactly that.
"And?"
"Hm... tastes a bit like paprika."
"So nothing bad?"
"No."
"Ais, would you be so kind?"
"Sure."
Bell offered her the rest of the piece he had cut off. Some who watched them had to think, that this made this an indirect kiss...even when all of them had seen Ais and Bell kissing before.
"*Nom*"
Ais chewed for a moment and made a thoughtful expression on her face.
"So?"
"It´s good. But really more a vegetable than a fruit, the consistency is also closer to vegetables."
"Allright...here we go."
Now everyone got curious as Finn cut himself a piece of the "paprika" and tried it.
"Captain?" Tione hade a frightened expression and held four antidote potions in her hands...just in case.
"Looks good to me, let´s move on."
They continued to try the various dungeon vegetables, what they got were a variant of carrots, paprika and zucchini. And for the last part...Bell had to try one of the golden fruits that hang from the trees.
Looks a bit like a mixture of melon and potato.
.
.
Especially Ais got beyond happy...these things tasted exactly like potatoes and had the same feeling to chew it.
"Allright everyone, harvest time!"
They didn´t needed to hold back, the dungeon would let it grow back pretty fast. While the others guarded them, the supporters went and harvested everything. Finding something eadible so deep in the dungeon was big news and important.
"Finn."
"Riveria?"
"I guess it would be better to call it a day."
He nodded. "I agree, let us move back for now."
.
.
The party moved carefully back to their camp between the Floors. It would become a long evening.
.
.
And while the party left the clearing...something...something small...went to the clearing afterwards...and got furios that all the fruits were gone.
.
.
And on the Floor below the big forest...moved something...or someone else...that someone...was the reason why the Dryads hated axes so much. This someone huffed while walking through a seemingly endless sea of sand.
.
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.
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Authors Note: I´m sorry it took so long. I hit something like a wall with this story for a while. While the words just flew out of me for Change of Fates, I sat before my keyboard and nothing came for here. So I started to read Spirit Child from the beginning and eventually got the same feeling and love for this story back.
I focussed too much on fighting and letting them swing their swords and such.
Next one is Blood of Zeus, Rei´s second chapter. Then Alfia´s next...then the Ero one "Elf (S)layer" which will also contain...Alicia.
On the side, Alfia too will get an Ero chapter later...but without Bell, you perverts.