Chapter 21 - A New Threat (1)

~ First Person POV ~

I arrived back at the after running from the group of thugs. After burning their food supply, the leaders will have no choice but to proactively find a new line of food supplies in this time of war because of their failed escape last night.

"It won't be long now until I can kill them all…"

Just then, I heard a rattle coming from upstairs. Since I was brought to the living room instead of the bedroom where Mari laid, I had a hunch that she awoke after getting some rest.

I walked up the stairs and checked the corridors just to see that there was nobody within, so all I could think was that she was still inside the room confused.

I walked up to the door then knocked on it.

"Mari, are you awake?"

After I said those words, the sound of rustling could be heard from the other side of the door.

"I'm coming in."

With a click and a push, the door opened and I entered through the doorway. Inside, I could see a messy Mari trying to get down from the bed, only to come crashing down.

"Mari, please stop moving. You're probably exhausted from work right?"

I tried to put up a relaxing smile, only for it to turn into a frown, just looking at her current appearance made me feel a pain in my heart. I walked up to her then carried her back to the bed and gently lay her down. During the time she was lifted up into my arms and gently placed on the bed, she just stared at me with shocked eyes, but then returned to her normal worrying eyes.

"Gren, where are we?"

With her usual childish but mature voice, she questioned me with a question I expected to come at me once she wakes up.

"We are in a dungeon."

Once I said that, Mari had an expression of shock and horror. Regarding the dungeons that were taught to the common populace, it was said to be a place of riches, where only the brave dare venture forward. These brave people were known as Adventurers. Although Adventurers also did some jobs on the field, most of the time, you could see them diving into dungeons to earn income.

But even though dungeons are a land of riches, these lands come at an exceptional price, the price of hard work, passion, teamwork, and most of all, time and blood. When a record was made in the Adventurer's Guild, it was publicly announced that Adventurers that dives inside a dungeon must be prepared for the worst lest they be among those who died inside a dungeon.

Of course, all of these came from the knowledge of Gren when he tried to gather information during a job given by his superiors so I don't know if this is reliable or not, but judging from the expression on Mari's face, there is some kind of truth in it.

"Don't worry Mari."

I tried to calm the panicked Mari by patting my hand on her head just as usual. Whenever she was worried, or panicked at a situation, Gren always patted her head gently to calm her down.

"Why?"

"Because I am the owner of this dungeon."

Once I said those words, Mari froze up. I promised myself that when she wakes up, I won't lie to her when talking about the dungeon, although I will lie about my past life as Drake Wota since this isn't something I should be talking about, just things related to the dungeon is fine to talk about with Mari since we will be living our lives mostly in this place.

"Will they not… Try to kill you…?"

In this world, are at the top of the wanted list. When one is known to be a , they are immediately chased and put to the sword by one of the most influential religion in the world, be they a normal person, or a king of a nation.

The religion is known as the , where the believers worship the Goddess of Light, Lux. This is because in the doctrine of the , Gods apart from the Gods of the Elements, as well as the Father God(Singularity) and the God of Strength and Goddess of Wisdom were Evil Gods.

With that as a belief, creatures that were created, or worshipped those Gods, were persecuted and brought to death. One such creature was a , which was created or managed by the God of Dungeons, Abruptum.

"They will, but they will not kill me."

I brought my other hand to her hand resting on the bed. I tightly clenched it, and so did she.

"I will not leave you alone again… I will make you happy…"

"Gren…"

Even though to others we were just kids, inside, both of us were already adults. The way of life we lived, how we tried everything just to survive, how we suffered, and how we brought it with us.

I hugged Mari close to my chest, and she did so as she tightly grabbed my back. After hugging for a bit, we separated and I saw tears coming from the corner of her eyes.

"Mari, are you hungry…?"

"… Yes."

I got up then quickly brought the . Although I didn't say it out loud, just the fact that I was waving my arms in mid-air made Mari confused. After a few selections here and there, a bowl of soup appeared on my hands.

"Here Mari."

I gave the bowl of soup to the Mari who was hungry. I also didn't forget to give her a spoon. She gave me a smile after her confused face disappeared.

"Thank you."

'Worth the 30 MP…'

Just seeing her smile makes my heart flutter.

"Once you're done with that, if it's not too much to your body, you can go and take a bath."

"A bath…?"

"Yes."

Just when I was going to talk about where the bathroom was, an alarm went off.

[Attention!!! An intruder has successfully entered the dungeon!!!]

[Invader Count: 1]

"What the…?"

On the screen only I can see, I spotted a robed person going through the dungeon at lightning speed.