━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

i can't feel my legs.

help me.

cold... i feel shivers running down my body from the sheer cold surrounding me. there was nothing to keep me warm.

my body is cold.

help me, please...

i can't feel my legs.

all i can feel is... hunger.

save me.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

the second floor. here, strange vistas stretch before them, unlike the village's musty catacombs on the first floor.

scholars say that this is the tallest tower of the golden castle, stretching up from deep below.

the group walks through the bridges connected through the giant trees around them, high on alert as they watched their surroundings for monsters. it's quite common to have airborne monsters in this floor level after all.

"these trees are so tall and i always wondered, how come they don't poke through to the surface?"

chilchuck asked as he points up, the floor level materialising light from the surface despite being covered for some reason.

"i don't know. maybe the curse of this place won't let 'em?"

laios couldn't help but wonder along, looking up at the 'sky' too.

their thoughts were put to a halt as marcille's yelp caught their attention, and they quickly turned to the girl who was on all fours on the bridge, her cheeks flushed in embarrassment after falling.

"you okay there, marcille?"

"yeah... my foot just got stuck on a plank."

she says as laios offers a hand out to her, and she took it with a silent nod of thanks.

"we've been walking for a while now, we should rest. let's find some place to set up camp and get some sleep."

laios looks around them, gazing at the giant trees with entrances leading inside of it as an acting shelter that some adventurers also use.

once again, the group started walking in search for a more preferable spot to set up camp and spend the night in, all the while chatting to fill in the silence.

"hey, remember the time when we spent the night in one of these hollowed-out trees?"

laios asked out of nowhere with a goofy smile on his face, and chilchuck couldn't help but grin, reminiscing the early days of their adventures.

"yeah, i do."

"i made pork soup and badly burnt myself."

chilchuck laughed at that, shaking his head.

"and then i accidently exploded [name]'s brewing kit because i was running around while fussing about my burn."

"she almost killed you. that was the first time i saw [name] mad."

"she still helped me though. made me drink a potion that helped me get a good night's sleep and next thing i know, i woke up and the pain's gone."

laios grinned, oblivious to the look that marcille and chilchuck was giving him.

'she literally just drugged you so you'd go to sleep and stop screaming your head off.'

the two thought at the same time, rolling their eyes.

marcille groans to herself as her stomach faintly growls, trying her best to ignore it. the meal they had earlier didn't really matter from how long they've been walking now.

"are you hungry?"

senshi, having noticed marcille's discomfort, decided to check up on her.

"i still have some scorpion broth from lunch earlier."

he offered as he raised up a pouch with the said broth, and marcille turns her head away.

"ugh, no thank you..."

laios, having heard of their conversation, perks up with a small smile on his face.

"oh, i know. we should hunt us a monster for dinner."

marcille groans loudly, using her staff to lean against.

"what would you like to eat then, marcille?"

"huh?"

"if you're craving something, i'll try making that."

the young man offers oh-so-sweetly, a grin still on his face. no one can hate this man, and if they exist, please send me their location.

marcille thought for a moment, actually considering some of her favourite meals before her mood droops down immediately when she remembers something.

"all of them are gonna be from monsters, aren't they?"

she grumbles, and laios could only rub his head sheepishly.

"as long as it's edible, i'm fine with whatever..."

she finally says in defeat, and chilchuck steps up to ask laios a question.

"what kind of monsters are in this floor again?"

"oof, let's see."

the young man huffs as he pulls his monster cuisine guide book from inside his armour, flipping through the pages in search for the monsters in the second floor.

"we have big bats and giant rats."

"absolutely not! i am not eating something unhygienic that'll start a deadly plague in this island!"

marcille immediately shuts down the first two options, and laios scratched his head before flipping through the next page.

"forest goblins."

"no to demi-humans, obviously!"

"living armors?"

"so... metal?"

marcille shakes her head.

"that's it? so there's nothing more normal like birds or fruits?"

"oh, my god."

laios looks at her in disbelief, and chilchuck could only release a breath of disappointment.

"there's always that one person who says they're fine with anything, but ultimately shuts down every single suggestion."

the auburn haired man rolls his eyes, and marcille points a finger at them accusingly.

"you guys act like you're suggesting casual dinner to me! those are MONSTERS, mind you!"

"well, there are normal animals here, but they're quite docile, so we'll have to set traps and wait. it'll take a long time."

laios says, and marcille visibly deflates.

"a duck isn't gonna walk by with a green onion in it's mouth."

"i know... you have a point."

marcille sighs in defeat, and laios suddenly perks up cheerfully.

"but.. this is a dungeon! so it might have dire ducks with man-eating green onions! now there's something funny and tasty."

"i don't share your optimism with it..."

laios looks down with a small frown, not knowing what else to say.

"well, at this time of year there are actually plenty of nuts and fruits around."

senshi suddenly spoke, and marcille couldn't help but grow intrigued.

"what? there are?"

"mh-hmm."

the dwarf gave them a thumbs up, and before they knew it, they found themselves in front of deadly, man-eating plants that look like they'd snap the moment you move.

"a-ha! a man-eating fruit plant! i should have known..."

marcille screeches out, pointing at the said plants.

"that's actually wrong, marcille. 'man-eating' is just a general term for them. see that flower over there? its formal name is baraselia."

laios gestured to the flower with purple marks on it.

"and it grows along animal trails. it produces fluid strands, like spider silk, and when a creature touches it..."

right on timing, a rat suddenly tried to skitter pass one of the vines of the plant and was immediately attacked, said vines wrapping around it tightly and crushing its bones as it slowly stopped struggling.

damn rip for my boy ratatouille.

"it can digest anything so it doesn't have to eat, it just uses its prey as fertiliser."

marcille wasn't really having it even after laios' explanation.

"you're so casual about this! that just means it uses humans as fertilisers too right?!"

"you know the vegetables you don't have any problem eating? those are fertilised by corpses and poop too."

laios says, and marcille scowls.

"yeah duh, because they're NORMAL vegetables! that's a whole alien right there!"

chilchuck then nudges her with a reassuring smile.

"relax, we're on the second floor. if a corpse was here, it would've been taken back by those corpse retrievers."

he shrugs, leaning his head back against his crossed arms.

"these monsters aren't that big of a deal, and they check it every time so i doubt that anyone was made into fertilisers."

"i don't know..."

despite marcille's hesitance, laios and senshi had already started to prepare to engage in battle with the plants.

"trying to pick them all one by one would be a pain."

"we'll have to fight our way through then."

senshi picks his axe up as laios reaches for the handle of his sword.

"wait, i'll handle this. i can wipe them all out with one spell."

marcille suddenly steps up with her staff in hand, already casting a spell under her breath.

"sperae yeptum rufermus... alamandas proju, nexant aslam-!"

"stop that, you idiot!"

marcille halts as senshi shouted at her, and she looks back at him in confusion.

"wha- why?!"

she was too distracted by senshi to notice the flower bursting open and tendrils coming out of its mouth to wrap around her body.

marcille shrieks as it lifted her upside down, holding her in place as its grip slowly tightened.

"ahhhh!!!"

"do you want to destroy all the fruit too? there's an ironclad rule around here, only take what you can eat."

senshi scolded the screaming girl who glared at them.

"are you kidding me?! just help me out here before this thing eats me!"

she then feels the tendrils gripping her more tightly and she begn to panic.

"oh no, no no no-! let go of me!"

in her panicked state, marcille began wiggling around and accidentally knocked herself against the giant closed tube of the monster plant, and out came a corpse covered in fluid that was probably used to digest the living creatures it captures.

"ahhhh?!? 'it can't digest anything' huh?! it's totally digesting him!!"

she screams, wriggling around like a worm caught in a spiderweb.

"huh? oh, well... some of them have digestive tracts. it really depends on the species."

laios calmly replies, then pointed to the plant that was holding marcille.

"by the way, the species that has you is parasitic. it plants its seed under your skin."

"you're not helping at all!!"

marcille cries out as laios pulls his sword out of its scabbard.

"stay as still as you possibly can, marcille. this monster has a lot of limbs protruding from its body. if i take them out one by one, we'd be here all day. if i had to attack one spot, it would be..."

laios then rushed forward and sliced through the lowest point of the monster, killing it instantly.

"the root!"

marcille drops to the ground with a yelp, groaning in pain when her staff fell directly at her forehead.

"eugh, ouch..."

"are you okay?"

the elf girl took the hand that laios was offering out to her with a sigh, rubbing her forehead.

"yeah, just fine..."

"well, how was it?"

"hah...?"

laios then moves to pick up a dead tendril, studying it with fascination.

"like i said before, this species leaves seeds under your skin. it's called a shadowtail! unlike the baraselia type that squeezes you till your bones break, this type needs to keep whatever it traps with its vines alive."

he began making strange hand gestures while explaining the functions of the monster plants, absolutely oblivious to marcille's unimpressed expression.

"it squeezes its prey just enough so it can't escape, but it's still relatively comfortable with its clutches which would feel kind of cozy. did it?"

"i made her upset again."

laios sweatdrops as he picks fruit off of the vines with chilchuck, the menta image of marcille's reaction engraved in his head

"well yeah, you did get intensely weird right there at the end."

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

"layla, are you sure we should go further? we've travelled far enough, i think..."

"nonsense! you never know how close you are to the real treasure unless you keep going!"

deep into the lower floors of the dungeon was another party consisting of two tall-mans, one dwarf, and an elf who managed to survive this long without a problem.

the elf named finn, a young man with pale blonde hair seems to be the only one to hesitate delving deeper in the dungeon, while his leader, a tall-man by the name of layla, was the complete opposite.

greed and determination was written all over her face, and the rest of their party seems to only follow her no matter what, which was not good for finn.

"yeah, we've come this far! we can't just return now that we got to a new floor level, finn."

kaiya, the dwarf of the party insisted along their leader, holding her weapon at hand.

"but... i've heard that there are strange things happening around these levels of the dungeon."

"don't be such a pussy, those are probably just some rumors that criminals here made to tell the dungeon dwellers to fuck off or to simply scare them."

mikael, the other tall-man mocked finn as he purposely bumped against him, almost knocking him over the edge of the bridge, the young elf almost falling in the crystal blue water.

"mikael!"

"you know layla, we should just leave him. he's been yapping the whole time."

layla ignores her fellow tall-man as she looks around, grasping the hilt of her sword.

"i'm hungry... do we still have food?"

"oh please, you're always hungry, kaiya. we just ate."

"it was hours ago, mikael. we've been walking for a long time now, and i took care of the monsters we encountered while your lazy ass did nothing."

the dwarf snapped, and the tall-man raised his hands up in defense.

"h-hey, no need to get grumpy on me. i was just joking..."

"shut up, all of you."

they went silent as layla crouched on the ground, picking something up.

"what's that, layla?"

finn approached the girl, expression curious as layla raised what seems to be a broken ring up to him.

"a broken jewelry ring. looks like a legitimate gold and amethyst combo. check if it's cursed or something."

as finn checks for any curse on the said jewelry, layla continues to go forward with no regards for her party.

"...you think finn is actually right? layla almost looks possessed."

mikael whispered to the concerned kaiya, who only sighed.

"well, that's just how layla is. let's go."

as the group walks down the dark hallway, layla suddenly stops while holding a hand up.

"wait, i heard something."

"what is it?"

she was silent for a few seconds before reaching for her sword.

"finn, light please."

"o-oh, sure!"

as finn lights up the hallway with his magic, layla cautiously made her way forward once again, and she gasped when her eyes caught something in the far distance.

"there's a woman..."

"huh? a woman? is she with someone??"

kaiya tried to squint her eyes to see, but saw nothing.

"layla, that's probably a monster. we should proceed with caution."

mikael frowns as he reached for his own weapon.

"...don't let your guard down. let's go."

the party made their way to where layla had supposedly spotted a "woman" down the hallway.

"I could've sworn i saw her down here... maybe in one of the rooms?"

layla, being uncharacteristically paranoid, began searching around the opened rooms with her groups following her around, looking at one another.

"layla, we've been walking for a while now. maybe we should get some rest-?"

"no! we have to find that woman. what if she's in need of help? what if she's injured??"

"oi, snap out of it layla! you sound insane!"

as mikael went to grab her by her shoulder, layla slapped his hand away and gasped loudly, a grin appearing on her lips.

"there she is!"

she ran inside a room, and her friends immediately went after her in concern.

"what a beautiful woman... i'm here to save you, don't worry."

"layla, stop-"

they paused, their blood running cold as they gazed in the darkness that was slowly lit up by the light.

it was a woman, or at least looked like a woman.

it was far larger than them, after all.

"ahh... ahhh!!!"

kaiya screams as she fell on her bottom, trying to crawl away as it slowly sat up. the upper body of a woman and the lower body of a quetzalcoatl, it was something no man had ever seen before.

the pinkish scales glistened under the light as the multiple wings fluttered open, and the monster looks down at them with a cold gaze.

"layla!!!"

mikael shouted as he forced himself to run towards the girl who was seem to be under a trance, standing in front of the gigantic creature with a dazed look.

the adrenaline rushing through his veins prevented him from realising that the monster had moved, too focused on grabbing layla to even noticed that he himself was grabbed by a webbed hand.

mikael let out a choked gasp before he screams loudly when his body was crushed in the grasp of the monster, and soon after he stopped struggling.

it raised its other hand, before bringing it down and smashing layla flat, blood splattering all over the floor.

kaiya screams in horror, stumbling back up to her feet as she desperately ran to the exit of the room, but was unfortunately grabbed by a tail that wrapped around her tightly.

the screams of his last living comrade echoes throughout the hallways as finn hides himself in a cramped room, tucked safely under rubbish as tears fell down his face, a hand clasped on his mouth to stop himself from crying out in fear.

it didn't take long for kaiya to stop screaming, and the silence was just as if not more deafening than her pleading for her life to be spared, but unfortunately for her, a monster would never listen to their prey.

'this can't be... no, no way! no...! this can't be happening...'

finn shook as he hears the slithers of scales against the ground outside, his heart almost beating out of his chest as he felt its presence pass by the room he's hiding in.

such a beautiful creature, wings that would rival an angel's, scales that are almost the same colour as pearls of the clear, crystal sea, and a beautiful mesmerising face. too bad it was as cruel and unforgiving as the other monsters in this dungeon.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

"i-i just wanna see if i can grow this in the surface!"

"hell no! are you trying to start the apocalypse?! give me that!"

"ahhhh!! no,