CH.332 Moss and Carrots
<span style="font-weight:400">While we kept going throughout the dungeon, I took a position in the back taking, making sure that Unika, the injured fox-folk, was going to be fine in the floating medical bed. I got somements about it from Alice and Lua through the System Link, mainly about me refusing to heal her bones with one of my summons while still making sure to watch over her. I’m sorry, okay? I do somewhat trust her, but I don’t trust Nel. Sure I feel bad that this Unika girl has to suffer because of it, but at the same time, I don’t really know what else to do.
<span style="font-weight:400">… I mean, I know what I could do, but mind control isn’t on my list of ‘generally eptable things’. I’ll only do it if there is no other option, or if the person I’m dealing with is a criminal. And I don’t think Nel is a criminal, just because she is suspicious.
<span style="font-weight:400">As we kept going, the monsters of course got stronger. Not that they were much of a threat to my squad, as even without me summoning a single monster, we were dealing with them quite well. To the point where I decided to tag out with Lua, so I could get some sword practice in. Just using my mithril sword, not Red-Eyes ck Dragon Sword. Well, I might bring it outter, as the number of B-rank monsters keeps increasing.
<hr>
<span style="font-weight:400">Eventually, we got to the area 4 rooms, which were basically all B-rank monsters. While we could take care of them, they were slowing us down. … unless I let Agunan run free and burn everything, but that wasn’t our goal.
<span style="font-weight:400">So instead, I think it is about time we stop holding back, and show our tagalongs why our party is called Card Summoner.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Alice, Lua, Ria. I think it is about time we call some monsters out here.” I told my party.
<span style="font-weight:400">Everyone agreed to my suggestion and we each took out one monster. Just one each, as to not clutter the dungeon too much. I watched what the others would summon and I’d then pick what I will call for.
<span style="font-weight:400">Alice summoned her Buster der, which I found interesting as I think that this is the first time she has used Buster. She always just calls forth her Dark Pdin.
Spoiler
[copse]
<span style="font-weight:400">Lua summoned her Vampire Vamp while Ria called out her Vampire Grimson.
Spoiler
<table style="border-copse:copse;width:80.3213%;height:18px">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="width:50%"></td>
<td style="width:50%"></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
[copse]
<span style="font-weight:400">So we have Grimson and Buster for frontline. Vamp is probably going to act support for them, so maybe… I guess this will do. I’m not sure if he will mind fighting nt-type monsters, considering that he is one, but I can always summon someone else if he does.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Aromage Bergamot.”
Spoiler
[copse]
<span style="font-weight:400">With our newbat squad ready to go, we kept pushing through the dungeon. My Aromage Bergamot was actually a surprising miscalction, as he was a lot more useful than I assumed he would be. He could control all of the non-monster nts around us, making the trip through the dungeon a lot more pleasant, and also a lot faster.
<hr>
<span style="font-weight:400">By the time our summoning time with our current set of monsters ran out, we had reached area 5-4-6, or the area right next to where our rue moss drop point would be.
<span style="font-weight:400">But before we would continue, I decided that we’d take a lunch break. To defend us while we did so, I called out Aromage Rosemary and Rose Spectre of Dunn. Though I almost ended up unsummoning Rose Spectre of Dunn, as she wanted to … get close to me. She only stopped after Alice threatened to burn everyst speck of her, including her card.
Spoiler
<table style="border-copse:copse;width:80.3213%;height:34px">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="width:50%"></td>
<td style="width:50%"></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
[copse]
<span style="font-weight:400">As we were eating, Nel cautiously asked if she and Unika could have some food as well. After I asked what had happened to theirs, she exined that she and Unika dropped their bags when they ran away from an A-rank monster in area 5-3-6. And because those bags had all of their food, they didn’t have any left.
<span style="font-weight:400">Admittedly, I didn’t really think about the fact that they weren’t carrying anything. We always have magic fanny packs and Storage, so I’m used to seeing us travel around with no backpacks.
<span style="font-weight:400">I agreed to share food with Unika for free, as she was injured, but before I gave any to Nel, I asked her for payment. I’m not a charity for her dumb decisions. She did get arge silver coin from her coin pouch, so I did give Nel some food as well. Not arge silvers worth, but if I gave her that much, she’d need a bag to carry all of that food in.
<span style="font-weight:400">At least both Nel and Unika enjoyed the food I offered. But then again, it was cooked by Tinkhec and Maya, so if they called it bad, I’d probably abandon the duo in the middle of this dungeon. … that was a joke. I wouldn’t do anything that major for some criticism.
Spoiler
[copse]
<hr>
<span style="font-weight:400">After our break, and another set of monsters summoned to fight with us, we got to where we were headed, Area 5-4-7. We had to go through the room with a bit more of ab as we searched for the drop point, but it was quite close to where the map showed it to be, so it wasn’t too bad to find.
<span style="font-weight:400">Alice used all the points she had gathered on her dungeon card to trade for rue moss, and we got a reasonable amount of it, so I saw no reason to hunt more monsters for more moss. ording to Laura, the amount we got should be enough for 10 high level healing potions. If the GM isn’t happy with this amount, she can always send us out on a second quest to get more.
<span style="font-weight:400">“So, Area 5-3-7 is next, correct?” I confirmed with Nel.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Yes. … also, I know you said you wouldn’t give me any monster corpses, but as you have already gotten what you came here for, would it be possible..?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“For a price, I suppose. But if you don’t pay, I’ll just take the monster corpses into Storage.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“I … I can pay!” Nel yelped out. “Just … not now. But I promise to pay you back when we get to the capital.”
<span style="font-weight:400">I looked at my team for confirmation and they epted her proposition, so I agreed to give her all the monster corpses we ran into on the way to the drop point she wanted to get to.
<hr>
<span style="font-weight:400">As we moved towards the neighboring area, I summoned a few new monsters to fight for us. This time the Queen of Autumn Leaves and Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch got a turn. I already figured out that a nt-type monster is good to have here, and a Pyro can burn everything down. And it is always nice to give monsters that have never been summoned an opportunity to be summoned.
Spoiler
<table style="border-copse:copse;width:80.3213%;height:41px">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="width:50%"></td>
<td style="width:50%"></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
[copse]
<span style="font-weight:400">I almost summoned the Infernal me Emperor, but he is a bit toorge, and a bit too fiery for this dungeon. I’m not trying to burn everything down after all. I mean, even Thestalos is quite therge being, but at least he is under 10 meters tall, so he can walk here.
Spoiler
[copse]
<span style="font-weight:400">As we passed the ce where you could enter area 6, I noticed Nel looking towards it, almost like she wanted to go there. But that wasn’t our objective, so we aren’t going.
<span style="font-weight:400">When we got to area 5-3-7, we began looking for the item trade point. It took us a bit less time than it took with the rue moss spot and after Nel used some points to get some carrot looking things, we quickly moved towards area 5-3-6 in the hopes of finding Nel and Unika’s backpacks.
<span style="font-weight:400">Also, out of interest, I asked Laura what those carrots were and she told me they are shining carrots. Good when eaten as is. Good when boiled. But you can extract some liquid from them that can be turned into night vision potions, as well as some other vision enhancing potions. Maybe I should have saved some points so I could have gotten some for myself. Well, we can alwayse back to this dungeon to get someter, and HomeBase can also make them. Maybe I should try growing them when I make a field on one of the floors of HomeBase? With all the mana we have avable, it should be possible to grow magical nts like that.
<span style="font-weight:400">As we then cleared area 5-3-6, we eventually found Nel and Unika’s stuff, so that was great. The bad part was, it was starting to gette, so we would either have to camp, or get out of the dungeon at night. Yes, I know. We can go without sleep for a day, even if we have been fighting. But sleep is the best, so … Fine. I’ll ask for everyone’s opinions.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Guys. It''s gettingte, so we can either work our way out of here, or we can camp. What do you prefer?” I asked everyone.
<span style="font-weight:400">“We should get out as soon as possible.” Lua said. “I know the bed is keeping Miss Unika well, but her ribs really need to be properly healed so that they won’t heal wrong.”
<span style="font-weight:400">Speaking of Unika, she had actually fallen asleep on the med bed, so at least one of us was sleeping well.
<span style="font-weight:400">“I do prefer our bed, so let’s head to the surface.” Alice added.
<span style="font-weight:400">“... okay then. That answers that.” I concluded.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Wait! Don’t I have a say in this?” Ria asked.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Well you do, but it won’t matter anyway. If both Alice and Lua say surface, I will agree with them and we will head out. And even if both you and Agunan say we should stay, it will result in a 3 to 2 vote to leave.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“And I would vote with my Master.” Agunan added.
<span style="font-weight:400">“... what about my opinion?” Nel asked.
<span style="font-weight:400">“You are a visitor in this party. If you don’t like it, we can leave you here.” I told her. “And if I were you, I’d be a bit more worried about yourpanion that you left to buy you time.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“... I… I’m sorry.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Don’t say that to me. I’m not the one you put in danger.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Yes. I understand. I’ll be sure to apologize to Unika when she is well again.”
<hr>
<span style="font-weight:400">On our way out, we passed a few adventuring parties that were going to stay inside the dungeon for the night. Most of them didn’t have tents or anything like that, they’d just sleep on the ground. Well, you don’t really get rain in dungeons, so I guess a sleeping bag is all you really need.
<span style="font-weight:400">As we got closer to the entrance, Nel got visibly more … worried looking. Almost like something was troubling her.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Is something wrong?” I asked her. “Did we leave something behind?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“No. That isn’t it.” She quickly denied. “... it is just… I … didn’t think about this.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“About what?”
<span style="font-weight:400">“... I … Can I trust you… to not tell anyone about this?” Nel asked.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Depends on what ‘this’ is. If it is something illegal, I absolutely will tell someone about it. Well, maybe not absolutely. I do break the rules myself, so it would be hypocritical of me to punish you for something I myself do. So I guess as long as you have a good reason for… whatever that ‘this’ is, I think we can stay quiet.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“... alright.” Nel walked over to Unika. “Unika. I need you to wake up.” She shook the sleeping girl a bit.
<span style="font-weight:400">“No. No. No. Don’t do that.” Lua quickly interrupted her. “She still has the broken bones, so no shaking. If you need her awake, let me.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Ah, okay.” Nel quickly took a half a step back.
<span style="font-weight:400">Lua then took a hold of Unika’s hand, before biting into her wrist. That caused Nel to let out a little screech.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Don’t worry. It is fine. Lua needs a blood connection to use Blood Magic.” I quickly exined.
<span style="font-weight:400">And I think I know the spell Lua is using. She has Blood Magic spells for both putting people to sleep and waking them up. I do have to say, the putting people to sleep part is a great help when I have too many things on my mind. I don’t have her do it too often, but every now and again, it does actually really help.
<span style="font-weight:400">“...hmm…” As Unika began waking up, Lua released her wrist from her fangs. It is interesting that no mark is left behind by her bites.
<span style="font-weight:400">“Unika. We are almost at the entrance. I need you to… do the thing.” Nel quickly exined to Unika. Even if I don’t really know that this ‘thing’ is.
<span style="font-weight:400">After a second of catching the surroundings, Unika apparently realized what she was supposed to do.
<span style="font-weight:400">“... alright. Put your hands on Fer and Rum.” Unika told Nel.
<span style="font-weight:400">Nel did as asked and after just a second, the two iron foxes, as well as Nel herself, began to glow a bit. Then the glow shed bright and after we could all see again, both the foxes and Nel were gone.
<span style="font-weight:400">“... what was that?” I asked Unika. It wasn’t magic, I know that much. Or to be more precise, it wasn’t attribute magic, as I would have seen it with my Spiritual Human eyes. It could have been unattributed magic like Space Magic, but there is no way this girl could struggle with sprites, while also being able to use something like that. So it was most likely a skill.
<span style="font-weight:400">“T-Tamer’s paradise.” Unika answered. “... an extra skill that you can use to hold your tamed beasts.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“And apparently a human as well.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“... not normally. I … kind of discovered it by ident. If you have someone holding multiple tamed monsters when you take them into paradise, the person goes with them.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Quite the interesting interaction.” I admitted. “So, what about Nel? I’ll assume she isn’t actually a B-rank adventurer. Actually, she probably isn’t an adventurer in the first ce.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“... I … I really don''t know. I just… I’m on a quest for her. That is all… that I know. I swear.”
<span style="font-weight:400">“Alright. I won’t pry any more. Let’s get out of here and get you some medical help for those broken ribs. … but just a tip for the future. Maybe don’t take on shady quests. Next time, we might not be there to save you.”