Chapter 75: Aftermath

A loud grunting sound resounded through Edward’s mind space. Edward moved his hand towards his chest and heaved a sigh of relief.

“I lived..” Said Edward under his breath and looked down at his still shaking hand.

One of Fenrir’s legs shook briefly in response to Edward’s mutterings and she lifted her head upwards.

Feeling something wet on the back of his trembling hand, Edward tried to lift his head to look up, only for his vision to be blocked by a small fish.

‘Did she just pee on my hand?’ thought Edward with a frown, immediately shaking his head to clear the disturbing thought from his mind.

“Azure, Fenrir, how is it? Can the wolf heal my body?” Echoes of his pain still making his astral body shake from time to time.

“Everything be fine.” Replied Azure quickly, her small body not moving from above Edward.

Edward ignored her suspicious behavior and closed his eyes while laying on the ground.

“I will rest for a while.”

No one else said anything else and twenty minutes later, Edward disappeared from his mind space.

“Thank you, Azure.”

———

Edward’s body shook, and he opened his eyes. After he lifted himself up on his elbows, the first thing that greeted him was the dead body of the lizard, or whatever was left of it.

During the time he was in his mind space, the wolf made quick work of the lizard, having eaten more than half of its body.

Edward looked around the room, ignoring the gory display. He quickly spotted the place where he has turned after falling unconscious. There were small holes piercing onto the dungeon floor, followed by a trail of blood.

[Your spell caused the explosion to trigger in the lizard’s mouth and its entire head blew up. You ended up also heavily injured by the blast and the wolf had to crawl using his fangs as support towards the dead lizard. It then started slowly devouring it and used the life force it consumed to heal your body.]

“How did I survive that…” Edward asked himself after he heard Fenrir’s recounting of the events.

[None of your internal organs got heavily injured, mostly shaken up by the successive impacts.]

All of Edward’s bones cracked as he stood up, but he didn’t feel any pain anymore. Opening and closing both fists twice, he then stretched a bit and looked towards the depths of the boss’ room.

Another set of doors lay there open, letting an eerie purple light make its way through from the inside. He could see a purple crystal in the center of the room. There were also some marking carved into the ground, making a circle around the crystal.

Edward didn't walk in and turn around with a sigh, heading back the way he came.

[Aren’t you going to check it out? That must be the dungeon’s core.]

“No need. We know the adventurer guild prohibits people from doing anything to it, and I’ve also had enough excitement for one day.”

Fenrir had nothing to say in reply. The moment Edward stepped through the entrance to the boss’ room, his entire body felt weightless and his vision blurred briefly. In the next second, something teleported him back to the safe zone at the start of floor nine.

Edward ignored all the weird looks he was receiving from the adventurers and headed back to the place his party slept at last night. Luckily, everyone was still there. Minx also woke up sometime during the night.

“You’re finally back. We thought you got lost or something.” Ingvar chuckled while stretching and sitting up. “Do you want to eat something before we leave?”

Seeing that everyone was behaving normally, Edward realized they had no way of knowing what has happened to him. He scratched the back of his head and decided not to mention it either.

“I’m not hungry, and I also have some good news. I’ve actually reached level ten last night.”

“What? How?” asked Ingvar.

“Well, anything I eat while under the influence of the curse also increases my life force.”

The others quickly accepted Edward’s explanation and left the safe zone. Not moving too far from the safe zone, they avoided the places occupied by other parties. After finding an empty spot, they started killing monsters while moving away from the safe zone.

The monster frequency was lower than yesterday, and they also had the advantage of not having to care about monsters attacking from the back. This made everything much easier. Edward’s increase in level also came in handy as he moved to the front line and fought together with Ingvar and Echo.

They took it slow and only killed around five hundred lizards before having to retreat since they were running low on resources. It was less than yesterday, but no one got injured so it was a win in everyone’s books.

“Kara and Mya should also reach level ten tomorrow. After that, we can leave the dungeon and return to the city.” Said Ingvar after everyone sat down in a circle.

“Aren’t we going to kill the boss as well?” asked Mya, ruffling Minx’s fur on the side.

“There’s no point fighting a level ten boss monster just for one point of life force. It’s a stupid risk and a waste of time.”

Edward’s eyebrow twitched at the two’s conversation. Willing to change the question, he asked: “Where should we head next to increase our level?”

“I suppose the Spirit Reach dungeon. It has monsters from level 1 to level 15.” said Ingvar.

“Why didn't we go there from the beginning?”

“Because the monsters here are of a single type and also don’t use any magic or skills, relying only on brute force to fight, making it the perfect dungeon for beginners. In the Spirit Reach dungeon, there are more types of monster, some even able to use magic. There is a steep increase in difficulty between the two dungeons.”

Edward remembered when he passed by the dungeon’s entrance and heard those ghostly screams. The thought of entering there gave him goosebumps.

There was still time to hunt, but everyone decided to rest today. When Ingvar went to buy food, Minx was led towards the back of the stairs by Edward.

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“How are you, Minx?” asked Edward as he crouched down in front of her and started rubbing her fluffy ears.

Minx’s tail started wagging as she said: “Minx good. Minx stronger now. Can help Edward more.”

“Minx is a good girl.” Said Edward with a smile.

“Fenrir, is there a way we can check on Minx’s progress?”

[If you get a pass for her to enter the city, you can probably have them issue her a status tablet. If that dragon had one, I think she can too.]

“I haven't had the chance to deal with that…”

[You’ve…] Fenrir started speaking but stopped herself at the sound of footsteps coming from the other side of the stairs. Edward turned his head and noticed that Echo had just appeared from around the corner.

“Did I interrupt you guys?” she asked with her eyes fixed on Edward’s hand that was massaging Minx’s ears.

“No. Weren’t you guys going to eat?”

Echo made her way next to Edward, crouched down and started playing with Minx as well.

“There is no one selling food now. Apparently, they went to restock or something and will return later.”

Edward nodded, and they both kept spoiling Minx in silence. The situation became a little awkward as none of them spoke after that. Suddenly, Echo asked: “Edward, what do you think of the City of Ashes?”

“Huh?” Edward tilted his head to the side and said: “Well, it’s the only city I’ve been to and I don’t really have anything to compare it to. That being said, I like it here. Why are you asking?.”

“I already told you I’ve been to Oasis a while ago, right?”

“Yeah, for your mission…” said Edward, unsure of why she was bringing this.

“It wasn’t really a mission.. I’ve been there with my parents to discuss something with my fiancé and his family.” interrupted Echo.

“You have a fiancé? Is him from Oasis?” asked Edward, remembering the time Ingvar told him that Echo’s situation was a little complicated.

Echo sighed and said: “Vance. He’s the son of Oasis’s merchant guild’s leader.”

“I never told you before, but my parents are also both merchants, with my father being the leader of our city’s merchant guild. Before both my and his father became guild leaders, they used to do business a lot and were even good friends. The moment I and Vance were born, our fathers made a wedding contract for us to marry when we are of age, mostly to deepen the relationship between our families. This contract also allowed them to get leading positions in their respective guild.”

“As both of them became guild leaders, the contract became even more important. It allowed both guilds to make business in good faith.”

Edward sighed, understanding the gist of it all. “Do you have doubts about the marriage?”

“I don’t know. I don’t even know him that well. We’ve only met for about a few days every half a year and he was always nice to me, but I still don’t know him well enough to marry him. Our parents set the wedding for a year from now and I’ll have to move there, to Oasis.” said Echo with a forlorn look in her eyes.

“Have you tried telling this to your parents?”

Echo shook her head. “How could I? I know how much father struggled before getting the guild leader position. The merchant guild is not like the other guilds, the competition for the leader position being a lot fiercer. If the marriage were to fall through, I’m afraid other merchants would use this to get the position for themselves.”

“I understand your point, but do you think it’s alright to condemn yourself to a life of unhappiness just for that? Maybe it won’t even happen like you think it will. I’m sure you can work something out with your parents if you just speak to them.” Replied Edward, this custom of arranged marriages sounding completely stupid to him who came from modern Earth.

“They will for sure agree to cancel the marriage, but… I don’t know what to do.”

“I can’t make that decision for you, Echo. Take some time to think it through. Don’t think only about your parents’ situation, think about your own happiness as well.”

Echo fell silent and buried her face in Minx’s fur. ‘I know, but how can I put them in that position?’

Edward also wanted to help her, but there was nothing he could do. It was her decision to make, and he still didn’t completely understand how this world’s society worked.

A couple minutes of complete silence later, Echo stood up and said: “Thanks for listening to me, Edward. I’m going back to the others.”

Edward found her back to appear a lot lonelier as she walked away. He also spotted the wet stains on Minx’s fur where she buried her head, but choose not to stop her from walking away and laid down with his head on Minx’s fur. He closed his eyes and his mind slowly drifted to his own troubles with Violet.

Not even ten minutes later, the sound of footsteps made Edward open his eyes again.

Ingvar rested his back against the staircase and asked: “What did you and Echo talk about?”

“Why are you asking?” said Edward, finding the question quite inappropriate.

“She’s been looking down ever since she came back to the city, but won’t tell either me or Kara what’s bothering her.”

“If she wanted you to know, she’ll tell you herself.” Said Edward as he closed his eyes again, not interested in gossiping with Ingvar.

“I was just worried about her.”.

“Then tell her that, not me. I’m not interested in sharing other people’s problems with you.”

Ingvar smiled wryly and stood up before walking away.

[Why are you snapping at the boy?] asked Fenrir once Ingvar was gone.

“He reminded me of someone from the past.”

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