Chapter 147 Dungeon Core: “The Eternal Training Ground”

Pov Vinny

I watched as the flames danced. It had been a long time since I had time to simply look at a fire. There were four sleeping bodies near me. One of them was currently snoring like an old man. For a brief moment, I looked towards Sandy and wished she could sleep quietly so I wouldn’t have to hold two spells.

It sucked having to be one of the two who had to be on guard during the night, but they were good enough to let us sleep longer so I could also get all of my hours. Sandy was the second person who had to be on guard. It took us a bit of time to figure out the best schedules and how to do things, but we were getting the hang of surviving in this dangerous place.

Yesterday, we reached this spot that was elevated from our surroundings. It helped us locate our next destination, but it also showed the dangers of getting there.

Looking over the dangerous landscape filled with small outcroppings of rock clusters on a relatively flat grassland. Up to this point, we were mainly in a forest, and while it had its own dangers, it gave a lot of cover which helped us dodge a lot of dangerous monsters.

From the looks of it, the grassland had fewer monsters, but they could see a lot further and we still didn't truly understand their hunting patterns. Currently, we are planning to stay here for a few days to get a measure of what's ahead of us, but I do not know if I like that idea. I definitely wouldn’t have liked that idea a week ago, but things have changed.

I never expected to wake up when the surprise attack nearly ended me. Then, once again, I expected not to wake up when I defended against that monstrous opponent during our last stand in that way station. Waking up a second time and then having to run for my life almost immediately didn't help the feeling I got towards Carl and Ziiipe who brought us to this place.

From the danger I could sense around us in the beginning, there was no doubt in my mind that I was saved just so I could die an even worse death. When we were able to survive that first week, my feelings of anger and frustration changed to regret for having chosen to give up so soon. Thanking Ziiipe and Carl also helped me accept the situation even more, and after that, I finally felt like I was myself again.

Looking up into the fake sky, I saw a hint of light indicating that sunrise was approaching. It felt so real that if I didn’t remind myself that it was fake, I could almost think that we were in a real-world and not in a fabricated environment made by a dungeon. Whatever this place was meant to be, it was certainly impressive but also dangerous.

Looking once again at the people around me, I knew that I could have never survived alone out here. Lately, things have started to feel different between us.

 Ever since I started delving alone, there was a part of me missing. All my life I had always done things together with people I knew had my back, with my family. Sometimes I regret the decision of leaving them behind so I could continue to push forward alone, even if I was able to go faster.

Lately, I was getting the same feeling, well, at least close to it, with these four people. Many things about them annoyed me, yet they also made me laugh and, most importantly, I knew that they had my back. Never have I felt myself grow so fast. Not only were we getting stronger from the constant fighting, but I was also getting better at fighting, period.

Our combat ability has soared, and I think part of it is because we know we can rely on each other to shore up our weaknesses. Never have I been able to concentrate on one aspect of a fight and actually try to improve myself during one.

All of them have allowed me to do so in their own ways. Caspian makes sure that all of us are protected and always in the correct position so no one can surprise us. Whenever I feel weak or get hurt, Sandy always helps me at the very next moment.

I do not know how Carl does it, but somehow, whenever none of us can hurt a particular monster, he always seems to have a way of dealing damage. I have never seen anyone be so efficient at putting down monsters.

Whenever we need something crazy, Ziiipe always has a solution. The way she can also sense the sneaky monsters and somehow always manages to kill them before they cause trouble is something I’m trying to learn from her.

At first, I felt inadequate compared to them, especially when we started to feel like a proper party. Two days after that, Caspian sat us down and made each of us tell the others what we thought about each other. It turns out almost every one of us thought that they were the useless one while everyone else was keeping them up.

When I heard them tell me how they couldn’t understand, or were envious at how easily I could deal with swarms of monsters that could easily overwhelm them, well I felt a little bit overwhelmed. It turns out everyone was important in their own way, and after that, things got even easier.

Now, I have another thing I feel guilty about. There is a need for us to get back as fast as possible to figure out what was happening in the dungeon and outside of it, but a small part of me wanted this to never end.

It was crazy; every day we were close to death yet fighting with these people felt so right. There was a chance that when we escaped this place, we would go our separate ways. That would hurt.

Yet, I was still going to do anything I could to get them back as fast as possible. Carl had a family, and I don’t mean cousins or a father; he had a wife and children waiting for him. That was a bit different, and none of us besides Carl had that waiting for us.

If anyone was going to make it out of here, I was going to make sure it was Carl. His family deserves nothing less, and I was running out of fingers to count how many times that man had saved my life.

The breeze changed and I smelled the freshness that I have never felt anywhere else. Finally, I could see just a hint of the sun on the horizon. It was time to wake three of my party members up.

That was the part that I enjoyed the most, especially waking Carl up because the only ways to get him to wake were to have danger nearby or by pouring a mug of water over his face. We sometimes played a game as we tried to find new ways of waking him up, but a mug of water seemed to be the best choice to keep things quiet.

I was taking way too much pleasure in my current actions. Walking next to him, I filled up a mug with water. Then suddenly, I flipped it and watched as Carl shot up ready for a fight. It was unreasonable for this to be so fun.

"Damn it Vinny, how many times have I told you, you can just tell me to wake up, don't give me that bullshit that it doesn't work. Anna always wakes me up like that. And the rest of you, you can stop..." Carl, however, stopped talking when he noticed that everyone else was still sleeping.

"We are now even. Thanks for catching me when I was about to fall from that cliff. I’m going to be completely honest; this is the best way we have found to wake you up; we were not kidding about that."

Carl took a few moments to think about what I said. "Damn it, this is going to be annoying. At least I won’t have to hear them snickering at me during breakfast. Anything happen during the night?" He asked, and I shook my head.

"I think I’m going to go stretch my legs. I'll leave waking up the others to you," I said to Carl as I started to walk away.

The way he looked at me at first in surprise, and then I saw that smile come to his face. It might be a good idea to find a spot where I could observe what was about to happen. Why did I all of a sudden get a feeling that the air around us felt amused?