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it all began in a tiny village. one day, the ground shook and the floor of the catacombs split, and from the fissure... emerged a man.

he claimed to rule the golden country, which vanished 1,000 years ago.

"the land has prospered" he said, until a mad mage cast a spell that sunk it deep underground, trapping his subjects there.

"i shall bestow my kingdom to whomever defeats the mage" he cried, before the man turns to dusk and blew away.

the golden country... one of the many ancient mysteries to exist in this world. ah, of course it is only natural for such a curious creature to seek for it.

oh, [name] [lastname]... how you've dug your own grave for this one.

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a grumbling stomach was the first thing that laios heard as he stirred awake, the scenario all too familiar with him.

it feels like he dreamt of this before.

he sits up, holding his head.

'where am i? i feel like this happened before...'

the silence didn't last long as a feminin voice calls out to him, and he looks up at the sight of a blonde, elf girl running to his direction, a qooden staff clutched in her hands.

he was relieved to see marcille. at least he knows one of his party members is safe.

"laios!"

marcille pants as she reached him, taking a moment to catch her breath.

"thank goodness... that was close. we would've been dragon food if it weren't for that spell."

she sighs out, before looking around.

"speaking of... have you seen falin?"

this snapped laios out of his glazed state, and he looks down glumly.

"she got eaten."

"what?"

laios stood up with a groan.

"the spell couldn't reach her in the dragon's stomach..."

"oh no..."

marcille covers her mouth in pure devastation, the sudden revelation tearing a hole in her heart.

laios had this pensive expression on his face as he turns to leave, sliding his sword back in its hilt.

"the dragon's sleeping now. i'll go back for her."

"hey, wait!"

marcille stops him before he could start marching away, a frown on her face.

"we're broke right now... when we teleported, all of our inventory was left behind. the only thing we have right now are the gears on our backs."

"what?"

before laios could question any further, a newcomer approached them with two papers at hand.

"i have some more bad news for you guys..."

"chilchuck..!"

"two of our party members just decided to quit."

a man with short, auburn hair and a smaller stature handed the letters over to laios who began reading the contents, the corner of his lips quirking down the further he read.

"they've been getting offers from another party for a while now."

laios cups his chin in thought, looking at his remaining party members in contemplation.

"raiding dungeons takes money. the cost of party members, gears and food can get expensive. let's say we sold all our gear that we have now. would that give us enough cash to buy cheaper gears, a little food, some medicine, a few daily essentials and hire a few more party members?"

he thought out loud, a hand cupping his chin.

"what do you guys think?"

"not even."

was chilchuck's answer as he sighs.

laios frowned at this, dejected from the circumstances they're now facing.

"by the time we figure this out, falin will be digested... you can't come back after being chewed out. wasn't someone resurrected after getting pooped out?"

the two recoiled from his question, grimacing.

"ugh..."

"not that i've heard of..."

a small period of silence settled between the three before laios perk up, looking around.

"oh yeah, where's [name]? i don't see her anywhere. she didn't leave a resignation letter right?"

at this, chilchuck and marcille glanced at each other with a look of concern.

"...we didn't see her anywhere."

chilchuck rubs the back of his head.

"m-maybe she just went off to town without telling us? she always does that..."

marcille chuckled nervously, her shoulders drooping when her party members didn't return the energy.

"... she's down there too. she must be."

laios closed his eyes, rubbing the spot between them.

"oh no..."

the elf girl bit her lip, trying to stop herself from getting more emotional than she already was.

the touden party might not have been a long term party, but they've spent a good amount of time together to consider each other as friends. maybe some of them even more than that towards a certain someone, and it's safe to say that marcille is extremely close towards two of their missing party members.

it's taking every fiber of her being not to get overwhelmed by their situation.

laios hums in thought.

"yeah... if i remember correctly, she threw something down before falin could cast the spell to save us. knowing [name], it must've been some kind of crazy potion to deal damage to the dragon."

"yeah, she would've done that just to save our butts..."

marcille muttered with a shaky voice, and chilchuck silently agrees along with their words.

the glum atmosphere around them was suddenly disrupted by marcille's growling stomach, and they both looked at her as she flushed in embarrassment.

"...what? don't act like you guys aren't hungry too!"

and so the group went to town in search for a place to eat at. marcille cups her cheek as she daydreams about the variety of food she wants to eat.

"putting the financial problems aside... we need to find a place to eat. that's probably why we were defeated in the first place. now then... what to eat?"

she grins at the thought of all the delicacies she could have.

"if we want something to eat, there's the public dining hall. the laughing wolf tavern has bigger portions, sooo—"

she then brightens up and pointed to a restaurant.

"ah, but that place has an amazing menu! they make soup with meat dumplings that's to die for."

"no."

marcille falters a bit at laios' straightforward answer.

"huh?"

"i have to go back to the dungeon immediately."

"but you need to eat..."

laios shook his head, turning to the two of them.

"okay, here's the plan... i'm gonna raid the dungeon on my own. you two are gonna leave the party and i'll sell your gear. so that way, i won't have to downgrade my armor. and if i'm alone, i can easily avoid the monsters and go further down the floors faster. it's totally doable."

"are you serious? you'll get yourself killed!"

chilchuck protested, holding his arms out.

"..this was all my fault anyways. i don't want to risk putting you two in danger too."

laios placed a hand on his chest plate right where his heart was, guilt evident on his face.

despite his carefree nature, he really does care for his friends. and the guilt that he carries on his shoulder was overbearing, knowing that he could've done so much to save two of the most important people in his life.

but this is no time to be moping around in self-pity. he has some saving too do.

marcille snaps him out of his inner turmoil as she clutched her staff to her chest, her cheeks blooming a red colour.

"i'm coming there with you! you're not the only one who cares about falin and [name]... i'll do anything to save them both!"

"oh?"

marcille now stood confidently, her brows furrowed in determination.

"you'll need a powerful magic user if you're gonna go back in there after all. i won't slow you down."

chilchuck joins in, smiling at the young man reassuringly.

"my skills are nothing to sneeze at either. you'll never know when you'll need a trap disarmed or a door unlocked."

laios grins happily from their declaration.

"you guys are the best."

as the two chuckled smugly, he then slams a hand down on their shoulders, catching them off guard.

"are you two absolutely, positively sure you want to come? even if it means death?"

laios muttered with a dark expression, and the two almost contemplates on their decision before agreeing because damn, why'd he have to say it like that.

nonetheless, they all agreed to pack up the remaining gear they had and go back to the dungeon.

ah yes, the start of a life threatening adventure with an unhinged blonde, a tired half-foot, and an overthinking elf. this should be fun.

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"we're going to get all our food from the dungeon."

"huh?!"

"hell no! are you expecting me to eat spores like a roach?!"

laios had this serious look on his face as he points down the stair that leads down to the dungeon, and to be completely fair, that is the most sane thing he'll say starting from now on.

at that exact moment, chilchuck and marcille knew they were fucked.

"but it's full of monsters down there!"

marcille tried to reason to the young man who looks way too passionate at the moment. he's about to start a mukbang with these monsters, trust.

"exactly. there are monsters down there, so that must mean that there's an ecosystem right?"

marcille was dumbfounded, which she will continuously be the more laios speaks.

"the carnivorous monsters eat the herbivore monsters, and the herbivores eat the plants, which in turn requires water, dirt and light to grow. therefore, us humanoids can sustain ourselves in the dungeon too!"

there was a deafening silence right after he said that, you can even hear a pin dropping from how quiet it is.

"..no."

chilchuck says, but laios gleefully ignores it as he ushered the two down the stairs.

"so that's it? we're really eating monsters??"

marcille cringes, already thinking of the horrifying monstrosity waiting for them down there.

"yep. every single meal. just think about it, some of the monsters we came across in the dungeons look pretty tasty, don't they?"

laios asked, meanwhile the two are just picturing the most stomach-flipping, toe curling ugly creatures to ever exist. hell, there's even a damn tree from snow white in there.

"no, they're not! are you insane?!"

marcille shrieked, shaking laios by his shoulders as they reached the bottom of the stairs.

"people hunt monsters down for food too, you know."

"sure, and they're all criminals who can't go back to the surface! even those criminals get food poisoning from the monsters they eat!"

"well, you did say you'd do anything to save poor falin and [name]."

"i didn't say i'd eat monsters!!"

"we don't have money for food, what else are we supposed to do?"

"so you want us to eat dangerous monsters and possibly die from food poisoning?!"

as the two bickered back and forth, none of them noticed the small figure lurking around, listening in on their conversation.

chilchuck looks around in boredom, already used to the constant back and forth between the two when something caught his attention, his ear twitching at the noises approaching them.

then, the screams of a group caught everyone's attention.

"ahh! help us, we don't want to die!"

"run! run away as fast as you can! don't stop!"

they watched as the group ran past them, crying and gasping for breath while a little mushroom ran after them.

yes, an adorable little mushroom.

marcille hits it with her staff before it could chase after the group any further, completely knocking it out.

"why do they keep letting newbs in here? if they're that scared of walking mushrooms, then they should stay out— oh?"

marcille turns to laios and watched as he lifted the motionless mushroom up by its feet

"laios? wait... no, NO! what are you doing?!"

"i think we just found our lunch."

the young man says, holding up the poor mushroom and marcille lost it.

"no way!! that's gross!"

she shrieks, laying on her back as she threw a temper tantrum, even going as far as to do a headstand.

"ew! no! i don't wanna!!"

"how do you even know if that thing's safe for us to eat?"

chilchuck frowns, placing a hand on his hips. he knew laios was strange, but not THIS strange.

"the dungeon gourmet guide says so."

laios pulls out a journal out of nowhere, flipping through it.

"it's a basic ingredient, actually. they're supposed to be meaty with a mild flavour."

he holds the mushroom close dramatically as the two read through his old guide book.

"gourmet guide?"

"looks ancient as hell... can we even trust this?"

laios then turned to them, still holding the mushroom.

"let's find a more open space and build a fire. i wish we had a few more ingredients though..."

a sudden rasping noise caught his attention, and he looks up while pulling his sword out of its hilt.

"hear that scuttling? that's a scorpion!"

he shouts before running off like a silly little man with his sword pointed up. seriously, i love laios.

"i lost my appetite."

chilchuck crossed his arms before they followed after him.

even though we are in a dungeon, this section is always bustling with adventurers and merchants.

it used to be the catacombs, where the villagers' ancestors were laid to rest. six years ago, it was connected to the dungeon proper, and has become quite a busy location.

they say monsters come from the bottom of the dungeon. are they creatures from the surface transformed by black magic, or are they from the bowels of hell? no one knows for sure.

either way, they look strange and attack without hesitation, almost as if they're protecting something. if these monsters could exist down the bottom of the dungeon, so too could the golden country.

"you caught it like a crayfish..."

marcille comments as she gazes at the scorpion laios held with disdain.

"that's how you're supposed to do it. and it's easier than a crayfish."

"hey, aren't you a little too into this?"

chilchuck questioned, and laios looks at him like a kid about to tell his friends about his dead bug collection, his cheeks flushed and all that.

"is eating monsters some kind of weird fantasy of yours..."

"saving my poor sister is the only thing in my mind."

"sure it is."

"i call bullshit on that."

"...okay i'll admit, i do love monsters. i love how they look, how they sound, how they live, and... i always wondered how they'd taste."

"psychopath behaviour right here."

"maybe we should lock him up..."

it didn't take long for the group to settle down, light a fire and heat up a pot of water right in the middle of the catacombs, where people are basically judging them.

"did we really have to do this right here? we could've went somewhere more private..."

"it'll be harder for us if we did that, especially when fetching the water."

laios counters chilchuck's complaints, and he sighed. of course laios has a reason for anything.

"all right, so how do we cook this?"

marcille asked, staring down at the scorpion and dead shroom on the ground.

"i was thinking we could boil it."

laios raised his knife up, stabbing into the mushroom before grunting in surprise, absolutely scaring marcille who thought something happened to him.

"what?! what happened?!"

"it's easy to cut vertically, but across is pretty hard. that means diagonal and horizontal slashes will have little effect on walking mushrooms."

the cheerfulness in his tone made marcille deadpan at him, unamused. she thought acid sprayed on him for a second there from how he reacted.

"wow, i learned something new."

laios grins raising up the now spliced mushroom.

"it actually looks more like food now that it's sliced up."

chilchuck agrees, holding the other half.

"right? you get it."

"no it doesn't!"

laios gave marcille a look and telepathically calls her a hater, which was absurd to the elf girl. he's looking at her as if she's the insane one for god's sake.

after slicing some of the mushrooms to cubes and throwing them in the pot, laios then lowers the whole scorpion along, to which marcille began to panic over.

"uh, hold on! are you putting the whole thing in?!"

"yeah?"

"isn't that thing poisonous? what if we die from that..."

"the venom from it won't hurt us if we eat it."

laios casually drops the scorpion in the water, starting to stir it around.

"yep! the guide says it's totally safe to eat."

he grins, waiting for a while before breaking the tail off from the body, taking a bite off of it.

not even a few seconds later, laios is on the ground on all fours, puking his stomach out as marcille pats his back while chilchuck watches in concern.

"bleghhhhh—"

"i told you so."

"excuse me, folks."

the two looks up in confusion when a newcomer arrived, holding an axe which definitely did not look threatening at all.

honestly, with that cute face of his, he was anything but threatening so i guess it's fair.

"a scorpion hot pot, eh? can't say i agree with your methods there."

"who are you??"

instead of answering marcille, the newcomer— a dwarf man, kneeled down to lift up the boiled scorpion on the ground.

"this have to be prepared for cooking."

he places it down on top of a wooden crate, pulling out a knife out of nowhere and chopping off some parts of it.

"first, you have to chop off the pincers, head, legs and tail— especially the tail. gives you the run or something fierce."

"but the guide said it's safe to eat..."

laios sweats, rubbing his chin.

"you won't die, it'll just taste like ass."

the dwarf man replies, turning to him for a moment.

"next, you have to slice the sucker up so it heats even so the juices can seep out. this way, you'll get all the flavour. it's easier to eat this way."

laios watched in fascination as the dwarf man slices the body of the scorpion up, his stomach rumbling.

"then you pull the innards out, like so. they're bitter, and the texture is just wrong."

he then takes the remaining half of the mushrooms.

"for the mushroom, you have to skin it and take out the butt. save the feet and throw 'em in the pot. they're delish."

"so the feet are good...?"

"yep, take a whiff. quite unique, ain't it?"

the young man mutters to himself as the dwarf man raised the mushroom feet up to his nose, and marcille once again silently judged him from the sidelines.

"mushroom foot sniffer."

she huffed, which went unheard by laios who was busy— well, sniffing the mushroom feet.

"your pot's not big enough though. so we'll use mine."

marcille watched as the dwarf pulls a whole big pot out, placing the ingredients in there.

"you're weirdly prepared..."

looking around, the dwarf cupped his chin in thought.

"only using mushroom and scorpion will make a bland combination... hmmm..."

he then stood up and began cutting out roots of the tree on the walls of the dungeon, along with green moss he found randomly.

"here, add this."

"what?! absolutely not! you cannot