After Meteria and I introduced ourselves, a small silence settled over us. I was thinking about what to talk about and how to approach this without scaring her, while she just kept looking me up and down.
"Would you like to eat breakfast with me?" Meteria said after a few seconds. She shyly held the basket out in front of her, a tremble in her arms from the weight, before adding, "I think I packed too much for just me."
I was surprised at the offer. I thought she'd ask me to leave, especially since I wasn't in the most presentable of states right now.
"You sure? I would love to, but I am covered in blood. I wouldn't want to gross you out," I said, my manners and a tiny bit of suspicion kept me from accepting right away.
"O-of course! I would love to eat with someone. A-and I'm sorry for calling you a zombie before. I should have realized you weren't, but I was half asleep when I first got here," She explained with enthusiasm that took me off guard for a moment.
"It's okay. As I said, I do kind of look like a zombie right now. Come on, let's eat. Here, let me take that. It looks heavy," I smiled and reached for the basket.
"Ah, thank you," She said as she handed it to me. It had a good weight, but nothing like how she was making it seem. How weird.
Meteria had packed not only food, but a thick picnic blanket as well. She took out the blanket and, with practiced ease, laid it out over a table near the front of the room.
"Here, put the basket in the middle. I'll get everything unpacked," She said. I gently set the basket down, then looked around and found some chairs.
"I'll go get the chairs then," I said before I made my way over there.
"Ah, wait! Please don't worry about it. You're injured, I wouldn't want you to get hurt," Meteria stopped setting the table and rushed over to stop me.
I couldn't help it. I laughed.
"Haha, don't worry about it. I can manage a few chairs, I think. Besides, I can't let you do all the work," I said, waving off her concern before gently pulling a pair of chairs toward the table.
"You really shouldn't be moving, though. Your injuries look really bad, even if they are healing," Her voice had taken on a scolding tone, which took me off guard again.
She seemed like she genuinely cared about my well-being. I smiled at the thought and finished setting the chairs before turning to face her.
"I'm fine, I promise. It just looks worse than it is. Most of the blood isn't even mine. Also, you invited me to eat your food. I need to contribute something," I explained again before gently opening the basket and pulling stuff out.
"Ah, wait! You'll get blood on everything! Please don't touch it, I'll unpack everything," only to get stopped by her a second later.
My hand froze mid-air, and I gave it a hard look. The blood on it had turned dark and had started to crack and flake off. I watched a little flake spin through the air before landing on the blanket now covering the table.
"Oh, you're right. I'm sorry, I'll uh, I'll just sit over here then," I said awkwardly before shuffling around and taking a seat.
I heard Meteria sigh in relief before she started unpacking everything again. I just clasped my hands in front of me and waited.
Soon, the table had a full spread of bread, fruit, dried meats, some cheese, jams, butter, and a bottle of juice. Meteria then produced some wooden cups and poured both of us some of the juice.
"Here, try some. It's apricot. I-I, uh, I made it myself," She stuttered as she handed me the cup with a shy smile.
It was then that I was left with a choice. Trust her and drink, or don't. I looked at her and thought about the little interactions we had.
Nothing seemed fake or subtle. Hell, the first thing she did was scream about me being a zombie. She showed genuine concern about my well-being and invited me, a stranger covered in blood, to eat with her.
She did all of this despite being weak. The way she seemed tired just by holding the basket, the slight shift in her breath, or the flush on her face from the effort. All of it screamed she wasn't in the best shape.
Despite being blessed, she didn't seem like a threat. I could probably fight her despite my being injured. Hell, a first floor goblin could probably kick her ass.
She knew I was stronger than her, too. The first thing I let slip was that I got injured in the dungeon. She knew I had some form of strength, yet she still invited me.
She trusted me. At least a little.
My smile grew as I had that thought before I took the cup and brought it up to my lips. If she could trust me, then I could certainly give her some trust in return.
The sweet smell of the juice infiltrated my nose before I took a deep breath and steeled myself.
The juice was sweet and refreshing. It smoothly coated every one of my taste buds and brought some much-needed moisture to my dry throat.
It was only after I had drained the entire cup that I realized just how thirsty I was. Whoops.
"Ah, it's very good. Can I have some more, please?" I asked, feeling a little embarrassed at just how fast I had downed the cup.
"Of course! I'm glad you liked it. I tried adding some herbs to this batch, and I think it turned out really well. Though I haven't had anyone else try that one yet, so I didn't know if it was actually good, or if I just didn't want to admit it was bad. Please have some more," Meteria perked up and gave me another cup before pouring some herself.
She continued to serve everything as she spoke, and soon, both of us had a plate full of food and a cup of juice in front of us.
We both dug in, small bits mixed with conversation, which had mainly devolved into how Meteria made not only juice, but also everything else on the table.
"I make everything. Jams, butter, bread, cheese, pretty much anything you see on the table I made myself," Meteria then started explaining the process for each item.
She ended each of her explanations by eating the food and then giving her commentary on the batch.
I sat and listened, taking some of the food and eating it with hums of approval. She had a huge smile on her face as she explained how hard it was to get the cheese production right, or how the ratio of the ingredients was the hardest part to get right.
For my part, I was both enjoying the food and just how nice it was to listen to someone talk about what they like doing. It took me back to when I was in Ouka's village and got to listen to them talk about their day.
The food filled my belly, and the conversation filled my soul. It was nice to have someone to talk to, or in this case, listen to, especially after being in the dungeon alone.
"So why did you take up making all this stuff?" I asked, after a thorough explanation on how she makes her sourdough. I popped a piece of said bread in my mouth and savored the taste. She did a good job with this, too.
"Ah, well…I-I have a lot of free time, so doing this stuff gives me something to do. I like sharing it with people, too, so thank you for listening to me. I know I can ramble," She said shyly, which made me pause.
I looked at just how much food she had laid out. The number of plates, cups, utensils, all of it, was too much if she was just coming here alone. She said she liked sharing her food, so why was she here alone?
"I'm glad I could keep you company then. I liked listening to you talk, it was…fun," I smiled at her. I'm glad I ran into her. It's been a while since I've talked to someone like this.
"Oh…I'm glad you liked it. Um, can I ask you something?" She fidgeted in her seat, absently mindlessly picking at a piece of bread.
"Of course. I'll answer it if I can," I said. My guard had gotten raised again as I hoped she didn't try and figure out what familia I was in.
"You said you just came back from the dungeon, right? That's where you got all those injuries?" She asked hesitantly, wincing a bit as she said the injury part.
I nodded and raised an eyebrow at her, not knowing where this was going.
"Then, could you tell me about how it happened? Please?" She asked, her voice wavering at the end, like she had just asked something rude.
I thought about it for a moment. I couldn't see a problem with it, I guess. The main problem is people finding out I was in the dungeon or that I caused the lightning. She already knew I was in the dungeon thanks to my slip-up, and this has nothing to do with lightning.
"Sure. You shared your food with me, I have to pay you back somehow," I smiled at her when I saw how much she perked up. Cute.
"Let's see… the dungeon started tame, it was only when I got to the deeper floors that things started to go off the rails. At first, it was just some goblins…" I then told her all about my little misadventures.
Our positions had switched. I delved into the story with gusto, while Meteria focused mostly on eating and nodding alone. The only difference was that she was far more reactive than I was.
Little gasps and oohs came out whenever I got to a new monster. She also gave out the full names of the monsters I was fighting. Killer ants, dungeon lizards, needle rabbits, war shadows, frog shooters, purple moths.
A lot of them just had an extra word in front of it from what I was already calling them. Very funny. What was even better was her reaction to each one that popped up.
She straight up clapped when I told her how I beat the ant horde. Though the biggest reaction was when I told her about the drake.
"It was a huge lizard, orange with a long tail. It got a good hit on me when I–" "That's an infant dragon! You fought an infant dragon?!" She interrupted me mid-sentence to scream that, which made me pause.
"That thing was a baby dragon? No wonder it was a pain in the butt to kill. Lucky it hadn't gotten its wings yet," I said, filing that information away.
"What? No, it's not actually a baby dragon; people just call it that. As far as I know, it is fully grown. It's considered the floor boss for the upper floors. You need to be level two to even think of hurting," Meteria explained.
"Oh, I see…yeah, that would explain it being so tough. Bastard got a good shot at my ribs, but I was able to take it down after a few good punches," I said. I felt a little better at how bad it kicked my ass now that I knew it was a boss. Still, what a weird term for a monster.
Who wants to say they killed an infant? I like calling it a drake.
"So you got all your injuries from the infant dragon?" Meteria asked with a tremble in her voice.
"Oh no, I got all the injuries on my way back up. The dra–infant dragon got a few lucky hits on me, but my injuries mainly came from the horde of monsters I had to fight my way back through," I explained, which just made her pale even more.
"H-horde of monsters?! What do you mean, horde of monsters?" Her voice went higher, though she did lean in more to hear better.
"I mean that literally, a horde of monsters. Half of it was my fault, as I had let a bunch of monsters from the lower floors chase me. However, a lot of times, when I reached the next floor, the dungeon had a wall of monsters blocking my way. It really felt like it was trying to keep me down there," I popped a piece of cheese in my mouth as I said that. Hmm, very good.
"I-I had heard that the dungeon seemed to be sentient at times from my familia. It purposefully lures you in before springing a trap on you. I didn't realize it could get that bad, though," Meteria explained, her voice quiet as she said the last bit..
I was mostly feeling upset that they called it an infant dragon, cause now I felt bad.
I don't want to be known as an infant killer. Drake killer sounds way better and not morally ambiguous.
I kept my frustration quiet, savoring the food a bit more and giving her time to think. Damn, this juice is good.
"Still, I didn't know you were a level two Leon. That's incredible. How long have you been one? If you don't mind me asking," Meteria broke me out of my thoughts of lamenting the naming system.
Hmm, I have no idea how to answer that. Also, why is the power system broken down into levels?
"I broke through a few days ago," I said after thinking about it for a moment. It was technically true, not that she knew it was with a different system.
"What! You broke through a few days ago, and you went to fight an Infant dragon!?" She shouted, making me drop a piece of bread with some jam.
The bread tumbled to the floor and landed jam side down. No, my bread!
"Um…yeah? Is something wrong with that?" I asked, unsure if I had done something wrong.
"Well, it's not that you did something wrong. It's just incredible. Most people wait till they raise their stats more before trying to face something like that," She explained with awe in her voice.
The awe in her voice made me a little embarrassed, though it was funny. I wonder how she would react if she knew I got struck by lightning a few days ago.
Still, stats? Level? Why are there a bunch of video game terms popping up?
"I guess I just didn't want to wait that long. You'll never improve if you don't push yourself. Besides, I didn't really know what I was getting myself into, so it's not that impressive," I admitted.
It would be impressive if I meant to fight it in the first place, but it just sort of happened. No planning on my part required.
"Huh? Wait, do you not know what monsters spawn on those floors?" Meteria asked with pure disbelief in her voice.
"Yep. I was just winging it," I admitted easily. I re-jammed a piece of bread and took a bite. Hmm, very yummy.
"W-what–How-... Why would you just wing it? Why not go visit the library, or ask the guild advisor, or anyone else in your familia?"Meteria stuttered. She looked like she couldn't comprehend what she was hearing. Like I was speaking another language.
"Well, there is no one in my familia. I didn't get an advisor, and I didn't know that there was a library. Where is it?" I explained and used my fingers to list off the different reasons.
Meteria just stared at me, her mouth opened in a little "O". Her food was completely forgotten while I simply ate. Hmm, maybe she wants me to feed her?
"Here you go, say 'Ahhh', " I said, bringing up a piece of cheese and pushing it toward her mouth. Only to stop short when I realized something very important.
I was still covered in blood. Whoops.
I stopped the piece of cheese mid-air before awkwardly taking it back and eating it. Ooh, that one was nuttier than the others.
"I-I…I am glad you're okay, Leon," Meteria said after a solid minute of silence. She looked me up and down for a moment before continuing, "Well…alive, I guess."
"Hey, I'm glad I'm alive too. I couldn't have met you if I were dead. So, that's certainly a plus, right?" I smiled and popped a piece of smoked sausage in my mouth. Spicy.
"R-right! Definitely a plus," She said, a light blush on her face. Cute.
"So, where was this library you mentioned?" I asked again. If it were open to the public, then I could get all my questions answered.
"Oh, right! Sorry, I got distracted for a second. It's in the guild. Just go inside and ask to see the library, and they'll guide you back there. There are a lot of good books on monsters, so it's vital that you read them before you go down again," Meteria said before looking me right in the eyes.
"Please read about the monsters before you go down into the dungeon again. Okay? I-uh…I want you to be safe," Her voice went quiet at the end, so quiet I almost didn't hear her.
But I did hear her.
I felt my brain stop working as the tone in her voice hit me. She was completely genuine. She…she genuinely cared about my safety.
"Hmm, got it. I'll make sure I do that before I go back down. Thank you, Meteria," I smiled, enjoying the warm feeling in my chest that her words brought.
She smiled back before we both started eating again. It was peaceful. Before, it had been one of us talking excitedly about whatever, but now? Now, it was just the two of us enjoying each other's company.
The food slowly disappeared from the table. I would like to say we both ate a lot, but it was mostly me. The amount of food she brought was enough for four people, and she had eaten maybe one person's worth. The rest? Down the hatch and into my belly.
We finished up. The juice had been drunk, the food had been eaten, and the utensils and tableware had been packed up. I tried to help, but Meteria gently reminded me that I was covered in blood for the third time.
I have got to fix that.
"Do you know where I can take a bath? Like seriously, I'll take anything at this point," I asked after getting shut down from helping again.
"There's a bathhouse near the guild. Once you get to the guild, keep going past it toward the wall, and you should run into it. It's right next to the temple bath, so I'm surprised your god didn't tell you about it," Meteria explained as she continued to put everything away.
"Ah, well, I guess they just forgot to tell me about it. It's not like I've been here that long, so they just haven't had a chance to tell me about it," I lied, nervously tapping my foot against the ground.
Thankfully, Meteria didn't pry anymore and continued to put everything away. I sat by and just enjoyed the atmosphere. It was nice having another person around.
Still, something did bug me.
"Why did you pack so much food in the first place? I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm glad I could eat it, but it looks like too much for just you. Unless, don't tell me I ate your share too," I said, guilt building in my gut when I thought about how much I ate.
Had I taken too much from her? I don't want her to go hungry.
"Oh, I was supposed to eat with some of my familia, but they suddenly had something to do this morning. I still wanted to go out and had already packed, so I came. I just forgot to take out some of the food before I left," She explained, though I could hear the sadness in her voice when she mentioned that they had something to do.
"Does… that happen often?" I asked hesitantly. I didn't want to come off mean, but it sounded like they ditched her a lot.
"Lately, I guess. Everyone had just been so busy. Usually, we all eat dinner together, but that hasn't happened in a while either." She finished packing everything up and gathered the basket in her arms again before turning to me.
" I…I am glad I met you this morning, Leon. It was nice to have someone to keep me company after so long," She said shyly, as she fidgeted in place.
"Me too." I nodded, " It was fun talking to someone. Thanks for the food again. It was really good."
She gave a smile at that before a brief silence fell over us. I meant to say something, only to click my mouth shut when she beat me to the punch.
"Um…C-can we do this again? You know, sit down and have breakfast together? I…I haven't had the chance to talk to someone in a while," Her face gained a flush as she refused to meet my eyes, suddenly finding the ground very interesting.
I don't blame her. The little breakfast we had was amazing. It's been a while since I could just relax like that.
"I would love to. Though, be warned, I'm not that good of a cook. The food I bring isn't going to be as good as yours," I scratched at the blood on my shoulder, suddenly feeling itchy all over.
"Ah, no-no, that's fine! I would love to try your cooking sometime. I'm sure it's delicious. And even if it's not, then that's okay too. I-uh, I just want to talk to you more," She suddenly leapt forward and looked me straight in the eye as she said that.
She was about a head shorter, so it was mostly her staring up at me while having her chin almost buried in my chest. Her eyes reminded me of the sky.
"Oh, uh…yeah, me too," I responded dumbly, mostly shocked at how close she had gotten. A beat later, and she seemed to realize what she had just done.
Her face gained a deep blush before she leaned back and looked up at the ceiling. I just stared at her, watching the little fidgets she did.
Adorable.
A silence passed through us before Meteria spoke up again.
"Do you want to meet here? I come by and take care of this place every once in a while to keep it clean and have a picnic, so it would be perfect if you joined me," she said, still finding the ceiling interesting.
"Oh, you do? I guess that answers why it's so clean. Why clean it, though? Or, why come here at all?" I asked, looking around and admiring how clean everything was again. It was the first thing I noticed when I first got here, even in my delirious state.
"It's special to me. My sister and I used to live here for a bit before we joined our familia. I don't need it anymore, but I like taking care of it. I have a lot of memories here, so I don't want it to just…collapse," Meteria explained, a gentle smile on her lips as she glanced around.
"I see…" I hesitated for a moment. I was planning to stay here, but it didn't feel right to do it without asking her. It may look dilapidated, but it wasn't abandoned. Not when someone still cared about it.
"Then, do you mind if I stay here? Just for a bit. I need to find a place to stay still, but once I do, then I'll head on out," I eventually said. I would have to fix the place up. Plug up the hole in the roof, realign the door, and somehow fix the windows. As thanks.
"Of course! I don't own it, so I can't stop you, but I would love for someone to live here and take care of it, too," She exclaimed before looking at me and smiling, "It will be lonely without anyone else."
Somehow, I don't think she was talking about the church when she said that.
"Then, I'll make sure I'm here whenever you pop by. I wouldn't want to miss your food after all. Or your company." I grinned at her. She smiled back before nodding.
"Great! Then, I'll see you later!" She said before suddenly turning around and sprinting away.
"Yeah, see you later," I called out behind her, though I'm not sure if she heard me.
I stood there for a moment longer, enjoying the lingering warmth she left behind, before nodding and leaving.
"Time to go take a bath. And buy some clothes. Then I'll go and face my toughest challenge to date. Reading," I shuddered at the last bit. It was half a joke, half not a joke.
I was never the best in school. Part of the reason why I didn't go to college. Still, my survival in the world depends on my reading comprehension, so hopefully it's gotten better.
I did arrive at the bathhouse after a nice walk under the mid-morning sun. I had gotten my cloak before I left, meaning I didn't have to deal with any stares on my way there.
The baths were luckily free, though the man at the counter gave me a glare when I revealed just how bloodied I was.
"Uh, hi," I said and gave an awkward wave, only to get a lukewarm greeting back.
"Look, kid, if you have that much blood on you, then you can't come into the public bath with everyone else. You need to rent a private room," The old man who ran the front desk grunted at me before holding out his hand.
"It's a thousand valis for an hour," He said.
I stared at the hand, debating if I should just go find a pond or something, but ultimately deciding against it. I had just gotten paid, kind of, and I deserve to splurge a bit on this.
I reached behind my back and pulled out a little bag of valis from my ring. I then brought it in front of me and pulled out the required amount before handing it to the grumpy old man.
He put the money somewhere behind the counter before handing me a key that said, 'Room 3'.
"Take the left hallway, and it'll be on your right. Don't wander around and don't go into the public bath," He grunted out again before looking down and going back to his book.
I followed his instructions and arrived at my room. I quickly stripped down before hopping into the warm water. I then proceeded to soak and scrub for minutes before the water turned into a red soup.
I poured it down the drain before refilling it and repeating the procedure. All in all, it took me three baths full of water to get all the blood off me.
After that, I prepared a final bath and tossed some of the magic stones into it. The magic stones wouldn't be as good as the herbs, but they would work for now.
I jumped in and sat cross-legged. My breath fell into the rhythm I had grown to love as I pulled the Qi into my skin.
Pretty soon, all my minor cuts had their scabs flaked off and were replaced by pale new skin.
The major cuts that I had gotten, along with my bruised internals, were going to take longer to heal, unfortunately. I wasn't at a stage where I could just shake off injuries without much hassle.
Until then, I was stuck just waiting. I could speed it up way faster than normal, but I was still bound to the sands of time, as everyone else was.
A knock on the door startled me out of my meditation.
"Yes?" I called out, confused about who it could be.
"You have ten minutes left of your time. If you go over, then it's another thousand valis," The voice of the old man echoed through the room before he wandered off.
I sighed and decided it was time to get out. I wasn't going over my limit. A thousand is a lot!
I quickly dried off and decided to just throw away the clothes I wore in here. I changed into the only clean pair of clothes I had before leaving and returning the key to the old man at the front desk.
He didn't look up, only grunting in acknowledgment before waving me off. I left and looked around for a moment. Time to find the clothing shop.
It took hours, mostly because I had no idea where I was going, but I did end up with more clothes in my ring.
After that, I made my way back toward the guild. I felt some nerves, worried that either Rose would see me or Chris would decide to report me for tax evasion, but I decided to take the risk.
I needed more information. On the world, the power system, the politics, and the monsters. Everything.
My fears were unfounded, thankfully. I asked a random guild receptionist to show me the library, and she happily led me to it. That was it. No fee, no familia verification, nothing.
Maybe I'm still too paranoid. I need to relax a bit.
It was quiet and peaceful, with maybe ten other people here. Hmm, they were all humans, though, so were they people? Do you have to be a human to be a person?
What's the definition of a person?
You know what? Doesn't matter. If I get corrected, then I get corrected. Until then, people and person could mean either human or whatever other humanoid creature.
Anyway, time to hit the books. First off, history.
…
…
…
On second thought, first off, dungeon monsters. I'll deal with history when it's not boring.
Now then, let's see what you got, dungeon. Next time, I'll be prepared.
===============================
Leon finally found the library! Yay! Now, he just has to study.
He's doomed.
A bit of a slower chapter, hopefully I got the interactions between Leon and Meteria right. A lot harder to write that dialogue than anything else for some reason.
A question for y'all. Do we know what disease Meteria and Alfia had? I think it was just vaguely, 'an illness' and Alfia was fine because of reasons I guess. Well, she was mostly fine, till she wasn't.
I have my own idea of just a genetic disorder, but I don't know if that's just fanon. Anyway, next time Leon reads, and a bit of a time skip to get him healed back up.
Until next time, friends!