Chapter 56: Chapter 56: Saving Pumpkin

The family had not even noticed that the glasses like markings on the new hamster were not there, and they bought Morris's explanation that he had found Pumpkin hiding in a bush.

Which was the easy part. Now, he had to go down the sewers to get the fluffy menace out. He made peace with the fact that he was going to stink all the way back home, and got down the grate.

At least Pumpkin was with a severed mana connection, so, his mana signature was easy to follow. He made it back to the pedestal where Armaros had once laid, and saw Pumpkin there. The hamster huffed at him, turned around and wiggled his little butt at him.

"Pumpkin, this is no way to greet me. After I had to spend fifty silvers for a hamster. Do you even know how rare ginger hamsters are?" Morris ranted, but the hamster didn't stop wiggling his butt.

The ginger axe wielder picked up the hamster, and it glared at him.

"I will be bringing you home to a nice girl named Fluffs. She is a real beauty. Ginger, like you, but wavier fur," Pumpkin bit him and began to chew at his finger, without breaking the skin.

"Now, none of that. You will like the farm," Morris turned around and then heard a scream. He closed his eyes and counted to five.

"If this is a rookie that snuck in here alone, I am tanning their hide," Morris rushed in the direction of the scream and saw a single tank surrounded by slimes.

"Stay here, Pumpkin," Morris dropped the hamster down on the ground and rushed, unsheathing his axe all the while. Had he taken some time to look at Pumpkin, he would have seen his determined little face. As it were, Morris's steps were too loud for him to hear the pitter-patter of charging paws.

Morris brought his axe down on the nearest slime. Then moved it so that he could use the momentum to take out two other slimes. He saw the tank bashing a single slime, but, instead of in the head, where he should have hit it, in the stomach.

"Don't think about the gems! Bash in the head, rookie," Morris yelled, and the newbie turned to him, looking relieved. Meanwhile, Pumpkin had lunged at the nearest slime and was safely swimming in its goo. The hamster took one of the gems from the goo and threw it on the ground.

Pumpkin's air was running out, but the fluff ball's determination did not waver. The dungeon core that had made him big and strong had charged him, Pumpkin the brave, with protecting the sewers.

It didn't matter to the hamster that he was tiny now. Only that he had a quest, and he needed to see it through. The hamster took the other gem and threw it on the floor. The slime fell down with a loud splash, and Morris turned around.

"You troublemaker, what are you doing? I told you to stay put!" The human with the same-colored fur as him grunted something, but Pumpkin was already running to the next slime. It was sneaking up on the other human, that had the big, unwieldy thing in his hand that looked flat.

Honestly, Pumpkin couldn't understand humans. Why use things, when they were born with claws and fangs? Maybe their claws were soft, and their fangs were not the sharpest, but Pumpkin had suffered enough from both to know that humans knew how to use them.

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Those devil spawns. As Pumpkin thought about his little humans, his blood boiled. They scratched him, Pumpkin dived into the slime that had been sneaking and began to pad towards its eyes. They had bitten and beaten him. Spanking his round behind with the same device their parents had used to kill flies.

And Pumpkin had tried to run from them. He was good, he had to remind himself constantly. He did not bite or scratch. Then, he had met the dungeon core, who had adored him from the start and had given him warm mana.

Now, the mana, as well as Pumpkin's own, were gone. He would rather die than return to his family without the comfort of the mana circulating in his system. Pumpkin was free and he would die free!

Around Pumpkin, Morris was making light work of the slimes. He remembered how hard it had been for him when they first came down here. All that training had paid off, he mused.

The last slime had been bashed by the tank, and there the three stood. A hamster lost to a berserker's haze, a scared tank, and an amused actual berserker.

"Well, I think you are saved. Come on, I know a shortcut to the outside," Morris picked up Pumpkin and petted him. "You did good, Pumpkin. Good Pumpkin."

"Are you...talking to the hamster?" The tank stammered. He had passed by the brooding creature on his way in, but had not sensed any mana from it and had decided to let it be.

"Pumpkin used to be a boss mob, so he is special. And he saved you from that slime that was sneaking up on you. Don't you have anything to tell him?" Morris brought the hamster to the tank's eye level.

The boy bowed low to the hamster, who looked down at him.

"I thank you, sir Pumpkin. You are the smartest, bravest, battle-hardened hamster there is," Pumpkin blinked. The two humans had used the same tone as the dungeon core when it had praised him. Could it be? Were they appreciating his efforts?

"I will take you to Armaros's home," the ginger human told him, something in a gentle voice. "You deserve a better home, brave Pumpkin."

Morris led them out, Pumpkin safely in his pocket. All the while, the hamster sniffed the ginger human. He smelt faintly of the mana of the dungeon core, who had been kind. Could it be? Was Pumpkin going to the one person who loved him the most?

 The hamster stopped moving and closed his eyes, saying a small prayer to whoever was listening so that he was allowed to bask in the warm mana again. 

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