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"why can't you just eat like a normal person?"

"i don't really feel like it."

[name] is the type of person you'd always worry about. not because she's dangerous to others, quite the opposite actually.

she's just the type that... doesn't seem like she values her life at all.

i always scold her, which may be a little silly considering she's older than me as an elf but.. i just can't help it. i don't want her to neglect herself like she doesn't matter.

she's really dedicated to her passion, which is alchemy and potion making in general. so dedicated to the point that she never does anything else.

even as we graduate from school and join a party of our own, she didn't really change.

"laios, do we have extra food left?"

"huh? yeah, we still have some bread and beef in chilchuck's bag."

"i'm gonna take some. [name] still hasn't eaten anything."

the longest she went without eating was five days, and throughout those days the only thing she did was gather materials from the dungeon and make potions for us.

[name], why do you treat yourself like this?

"marcille, thank you for taking care of me."

i know. i know you're grateful... but i'd rather you take care of yourself than thank me. i'm not expecting anything in return anyways.

if not for yourself, then please do it for me, [name].

•

"the entrance to the secret path should be around here."

"i don't see it."

looking around the area that they had just climbed down to, the touden party searches for the said entrance through the walls while looking out for any possible danger around them.

for some unknown reason, it felt as if there's something... off, in this area. they're only three floors down, and yet chilchuck felt off. like there's something that's not supposed to be there.

he's not one to ignore his instincts, especially when his senses are telling him that there's something wrong.

nevertheless, they need to continue forward. whatever danger it is, they'll just have to face it.

'but i can't ignore this... it's giving me shivers.'

the half-foot thought to himself as once again, he felt as if he heard something he wasn't supposed to hear.

"laios, can i borrow your sword?"

"oh, sure."

chilchuck takes the sword from laios before hitting it against one specific spot, cupping his ear as he listens to the echoes bouncing through the walls.

"it's here."

feeling around the wall in front of him, chilchuck finally found the loose brick and pushed it in, and the ground they stood on began to shake as the walls opened.

marcille and laios laughs like children, clapping their hands and singing chilchuck praises as the half-foot merely brushed them off and made his way to the entrance.

"how the heck did he know?"

senshi, having witnessed the whole thing in confusion was shocked by how chilchuck did his job. he found it rather baffling how easy it was for him to figure out the entrance by merely listening to the sounds that the walls made.

"chilchuck is a specialist in finding traps and picking locks. if there's anyone you can trust with this stuff, it's him."

laios replies with a smile, gesturing to chilchuck who approached them with his sword in hand.

"all right people, there's tons of traps coming up, so don't make a move until i say so."

chilchuck says sternly, handing laios his sword back as he walks ahead of them.

"one thing i hate more than anything is people getting in my way when i'm trying to work." (smh i love this grumpy middle aged man)

senshi hums in thought from his words, watching as chilchuck walks off without waiting for them.

walking down the stairs that led  further down, chilchuck suddenly holds his arm out before laios could take another step, dropping his bag on the ground and taking his boots off, walking through the stone tiles carefully.

once he made sure the ground was safe, he turns to the rest of the party.

"only walk on the tiles i just stepped on."

everyone followed after him no problem, well everyone except for senshi.

the dwarf paid no mind to his warning and just stepped wherever he wanted to and before anyone could react, he accidentally set off one of the traps.

chilchuck shrieked in terror as spikes pierced through from under the floor,
almost skewering him in the process.

"what are you doing?! i clearly said to only step on the tiles i step on!"

chilchuck shouted, holding onto the metal bars of the trap.

"why is your foot hanging off and stepping on the other tile?!"

"but i don't get the details."

was senshi's simple response, watching as chilchuck freaks out and understandably so. my boy almost got turned into a tanghulu.

"but the details are important! if you don't watch your step, you'll kill someone. there are all kinds of traps, some of them go up in a tandem, and some affect each other. if you trigger one of them, all my calculations go to waste!"

marcille nudges laios with a deadpan, and the young man could only shrug his shoulders.

"now open your ears and step where i tell you to!"

instead of listening, senshi looks away with a stubborn look in his eyes and took another step forward, causing chilchuck to visibly bristle and jump out just in time before an axe twice his size could cut him to half.

this continued on with senshi stepping on random tiles, triggering different traps while chilchuck screeched at him to stop.

"this room has all sorts of traps. this one will crisp you up before you even know it."

senshi rubs his beard in thought, watching the fire that was blowing out of a statue of a lion's mouth curiously while chilchuck tried to tug his foot out of the way.

"get off of the tile already! fire traps free oil, and it won't stop till you move your foot off!"

"oil?"

"yes, oil!! the last thing i need is a roasted dwarf!"

"roasted..."

"huh?"

chilchuck stares in disbelief as senshi mumbles to himself, completely disregarding him and the fire that's literally just an inch away from burning them.

"no, not roasted... fried? no, deep fried..."

senshi then shouts loudly, an intense expression on his face.

"kakiage!!!"

he then turns to marcille and laios, who had been watching the whole thing.

"we're having tempura for lunch today!"

senshi then looks at chilchuck, who is still in disbelief at how casual the dwarf is, staring at him with a blank face.

"do you know where the oil for this trap is stored?"

"it's not used for cooking..."

"alright, half-foot kid. you're an expert at cooking oil now?"

"i'm not a kid..."

"vegetable oil is the most common and i bet that's what it is. either way, i just want to check it for myself. if not, no worries, i won't use it."

chilchuck sighed in defeat, deciding to just give senshi what he wants so he'd stop nagging him about it. the dwarf is quite stubborn after all.

"alright, fine. but from now on, whenever we're dealing with traps you have to swear you'll do exactly what i tell you! if you don't like following my orders, then you can go find the oil yourself."

"i swear i'll do what you say. and i can help, if you want."

"i don't."

senshi finally steps away from the tile that triggered the fire, and chilchuck pointed a finger at him.

"look, we each have our specialties, right? you cook, i disarm traps and pick locks!"

he then points to marcille and laios.

"marcille with the magic, and laios with leading us! so, as a professional courtesy, leave me alone so i can do my job!"

chilchuck ended up picking the locks of the treasure room anyways, grumbling the whole time about how no one listens to him.

well, the other two does. it's only senshi who doesn't.

"so this is really the treasure room, huh. they made sure to lock this place tightly. it's literally bolted down."

chilchuck crouched down in front of one of the chests, frowning when he felt senshi's presence looming over him.

"i'm gonna need some space, please!"

senshi backs away and stood next to the other two.

"he's not usually this snippy..."

marcille sighed, shaking her head in disapproval.

"well, i understand him. he knows that if he screws up, we're all dead. he's just stressing about it, is all."

laios explains to the two as they watched chilchuck work on disarming the traps of the chest.

there was a moment of silence between them before senshi hums in acknowledgement, nodding his head.

"it's open."

chilchuck finally stood up from his crouching position, releasing a breath in relief at the successful disarming of the trap.

"great. so how are we gonna get the oil out of it?"

senshi asked, standing behind chilchuck once again.

"i have no idea, honestly... this looks like the spout, and this is the trigger. and if you pull on it, the oil comes out... i think."

chilchuck points out, using his tools as to not accidentally trigger anything.

"okay, i'll hold the pot. and you pull the trigger thing-y."

senshi says, the pot already in his hands, which made chilchuck pause for a moment.

"what? that's insane! this oil's probably boiling hot..."

"don't worry."

"what do you mean 'don't worry'?! i am worried!"

chilchuck squeaked before mentally giving up, knowing that an argument with senshi would go nowhere.

"fine, you asked for it!"

he huffed before pulling the trigger of the chest, and boiling oil came spurting out directly at senshi's pot.

chilchuck jumped away in time and shielded himself from the oil, meanwhile the little splatters that bounced off of senshi's pot landed at laios who was watching the scene obliviously.

"ahhh! it's hot! ah!"

the young man falls to the ground, rolling around in pain after the oil landed inside his armour and on his neck.

"that's what i was worried about...."

chilchuck sighs, rubbing the back of his head as laios continued to wriggle around in pain.

"are you okay?"

he turns to senshi with a concerned expression, but his eyes widened at the sight of the dwarf with his thumb dipping in the hot oil in his pot, not even flinching from the heat. (senshi is the anime embodiment of a mom checking the heat of the oil)

"wha— hey! your thumb!"

"hmm, 180 degrees. perfect temperature for deep frying."

"so you didn't feel that at all?"

chilchuck sweatdrops, sitting on the ground next to senshi.

"that smell, the taste... this here's olive oil."

"you're kidding..."

"there used to be tons of olive trees around here, and olive oil is easy enough to make. i figured someone would use it in a trap."

"yeah, i guess..."

the half-foot cups his chin, sighing for the tenth time today.

"now we can deep-fry things. oh, i know! we can use that big blade from the trap in the ceiling to chop the meat."

now this made chilchuck tweak out again, looking at senshi as if he had said the most absurd thing he has ever heard.

"now hold on! first of all, we don't know if the trap will react the same way it did before! second, that's just dangerous!"

his reasoning was cut off when senshi slams the giant bat in front of him.

"as i have no knowledge of such things, i leave the trap stuff to the expert."

"do i really have to...?"

the half-foot grimaced, and senshi jabs a thumb to his own chest before pointing at him.

"cooking is my specialty, so you'll have to do everything i say from now on. that's the terms we agreed to, right?"

chilchuck stares at him blankly. he legit feels like he's going insane but it's all chile.

"...i never agreed to that."

nevertheless, he still ended up chopping the bat up with the axe trap, jumping on the trigger tile with his backpack to add more weight.

carefully tip-toeing to rotate the bat from its position and making his way back to the trigger tile, chilchuck couldn't help but think to himself before jumping again.

'the hell am i doing with my life...'

after finishing with his endeavour, chilchuck returned to senshi with the chopped up bat.

"here, i finished chopping up the giant bat."

"oh, good. ye cut it up very well. next, i want ye to heat this oil in the fire trap."

"wha..."

"go on, what are you waiting for?"

and so chilchuck makes his way back to the main room full of traps, contemplating if he should just jump in the trap himself or follow through senshi's orders.

after a few minutes of prepping the bat meat and the other ingredients, senshi made his way to chilchuck to check up on him.

"how's the fire coming?"

"i have no idea. it's not like i've used a fire trap to cook in the first place."

senshi checks the oil and nodded in approval when it was perfect enough for him. he placed one mandrake patty in the oil, starting to fry it.

he then placed the bowl of mandrake batter on chilchuck's hands, already walking off.

"once it's firm enough and it doesn't fall off, flip it. got that?"

"uh, yeah..."

with no other choice but do as senshi said, chilchuck tried his best to cook the mandrake patties by himself.

the first patty was a fail, since he tried to flip it before it was even ready so in an attempt to quicken the process, he adds another pressure to the trigger tile of the fire trap, but ended up burning another batch of mandrake patties.

"i burnt it..."

"how's it coming along?"

"horribly. can't you just do it instead?"

"but fire traps are your specialty."

senshi reasoned, coming back with the bowl of bat meat.

"traps are my speciality, but deep frying's a cooking thing! if the heat gets too low, it becomes gooey! with too much heat, it burns right away..."

"then it's not your specialty after all."

the half-foot groaned but didn't say anything else.

"this batch looks okay."

senshi points to the last batch chilchuck fried, and the half-foot couldn't help but smile.

"oh, yeah. it does look good. i like the colour of these ones."

"and it's ready."

the two served the mandrake kakiage to the party, sitting on the ground as they waited for anyone to try the food.

"i've never thought i could eat fried food in the dungeon."

laios was the one who took the first bite, and he grins when the flavours of the kakiage exploded in his mouth.

"this actually came out so perfectly!"

"well, the heat was just perfect for it. when you deep-fry something, you do it quickly at a specific temperature. that's how you get it nice and crispy."

senshi explains as the group ate the kakiage, enjoying it.

"it's hard to get it right doing it over a campfire."

"not that anyone should use a campfire..."

marcille sweatdropped, and senshi turns to chilchuck.

"i've been on this floor a bunch and never knew about this useful room."

chilchuck choked on his kakiage, slamming his fist against his chest repeatedly.

"it's dangerous! don't ever come here without me, got it? you'll end up killing yourself."

"i hear ya. and for the record, the way you handled traps is amazing. you sure know your stuff"

chilchuck's glare faltered, and he looks at senshi with a look of surprise, his cheeks flushed in embarrassment from the unexpected compliment.

"the day that we will all part ways will be a sad day for me."

senshi says, and the three shared a hesitant glance.

"i can't figure out traps like you, that's for sure."

chilchuck looks away in guilt, sighing and rubbing the back of his head with a groan.

"it's not all that hard. when we get some downtime, i guess i can teach you a little about traps."

senshi perked up, looking at chilchuck in surprise.

"really?"

"...this could go bad in so many ways. but you did teach me a couple of your cooking skills."

the half-foot says, a bit embarrassed and senshi looks at him in admiration.

meat cannot replace bread, and bread cannot replace meat. but combine them and they can be quite delicious.

so it is with meals and people. delicious in dungeon.

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'there's still hope...'

it's been a whole day since the incident with the giant serpent humanoid, and finn had managed to climb back up to the upper floor where his party was previously at.

good news is he's much safer in this are, bad news is... well, it followed him all the way up here.

but there's another good news!

'that thing spat them all out before it could digest them! i don't know why though... most serpent creatures don't do that. how else would it get its sustenance?'

the elf boy wraps a gauze around his knee, covering the scrape wound on it after accidentally tripping on a huge debris on the way up the stairs.

the creature stalked him endlessly, and it even got too close for comfort one time.

the strange thing is, it didn't really do anything to him.

it just kept staring with those glowing (e/c) eyes. it didn't do anything to him unlike the way it reacted to his party members.

speaking of which, their corpses were left on the lower floor where the creature spat them out. so all finn has to do is go back to the upper levels, alive, ask a corpse retriever for help and everything will be fine again.

he doesn't care that they've practically lost everything, he just wants his friends back.

finn groaned softly as he tightened the gauze around his knee, securing it in place.

he released a breath and held his staff against his chest, peeking out from the room he's hiding in.

finn could hear it, its scales slithering against the ground from a far distance, and he could hear a few occasional hisses from it.

he tightened his grasp on his staff, inhaling shakily before taking another peek outside, his heart skipping a beat when he caught sight of pearly scales crossing over to the other side of the corridor, and he scrambled back inside the room.

he was lucky enough to find a room with supplies in it. for some unknown reason, this room had vegetables in it, as well as a bed and gardening tools.

at least he had something to eat, even if it meant he'll have to munch on raw vegetables without cooking them as to not alert the monster lurking outside, searching for him.

he's backed against a corner with nothing to defend himself with. he had already worn off his mana and can't cast any magic without passing out completely.

he crawled over to the treasure chest in the room, opening it but not finding anything. the money inside seems to have been stolen. he