Before too long, the impromptu village set up around the dungeon came into view.
Okay … 'village' was too much. But, as expected of such a coveted resource, no small amount of people cluttered around it, with tents, stalls, and other temporary structures of various sorts set up. While erecting a real town around a dungeon wasn't feasible—oddly, dungeons seemed to dislike this, and would do their best to prevent it—these 'supply stops' were quite popular.
Because if there was ever a place to make some easy gold, it was catering to adventurers who had just gotten out of, or were going into, a dungeon. The former, because exhaustion and new riches were great circumstances for being easier to part with your coin, and the latter, because the convenience of a last-second purchase, rather than returning to town, the same.
Opal donned her thick mage robes before nearing the dungeon entrance. She looked odd, draped head to toe in the thick covering material, and with her hood pulled so tight she could barely see out of it, but it was the only strategy Ari had for keeping Opal's odd features reliably hidden. Because a face of pink goo … that'd be hard to explain. More even than cat ears and a tail.
Ari had intended to scurry through the throngs of enterprising merchants and chatting adventurers. Opal's sticky skin meant the thick robes would eventually dampen, another oddity Ari would rather people not notice. Unfortunately, that plan didn't come to pass. Keeping a quick pace, Opal at her side, the snippet of a conversation made Ari halt.
"—plant monster miniboss, yeah," a short, blond adventurer was saying. He had a youthful face that was dirtied from his dungeoneering expedition. "It just … let us go."
Huh?
Cece?
Ari turned to the group, drawn in by the conversation despite the need to be moving quickly. A group of three was chatting with a group of four. The former, the one with the blond boy, and clearly an adventuring group that had recently returned from a delve. The other group was fresh-looking, about to dive down themselves.
Ari recognized someone, too. Only peripherally, but still recognized … though it took a second to place. Back when the first bonus adventurers had started flooding to Molehill (had it really only been a smattering of days?), Ari had seen an imperious-looking girl with white hair complaining loudly and bossing people around. For some reason, she'd stuck out in Ari's mind. And not only because of how cute she was, something Ari was paying even more attention to these days, but because … well, again, the girl had demonstrated a tendency toward being opinionated. To put it in a polite way.
"Let you go?" the girl asked, incredulous. "Monsters don't just … let people go. You must have almost won, and it fled. It simply …deceived you of its status."
The blond boy shook his head, seeming annoyed. "We weren't even close. It had more than half its health left. And it wasn't a trick."
"That doesn't make any sense," White-Hair said firmly. "You're mistaken. That's not how things work."
"Well, it's what happened."
She almost agreed with White-Hair. That wasn't how monsters worked. It was why she had stopped to listen, unable to help herself. Beyond that, the topic of discussion being a plant miniboss. They were talking about Cece. And … she'd let a group of adventurers go, who she had defeated?
Really?
Had … Ari's transformation affected her? Cece had reverted to her monstrous form after Ari left, but maybe her experience as a monstergirl hadn't evaporated entirely? Maybe she retained the memories, in a small way, and a fraction of her sapience? Because, again, monsters didn't just 'let people go'.
"Something's not right," White-Hair said. Her tone grated even on Ari, and she considered herself a pretty forgiving person. Ari empathized with her incredulity … but seriously, she was so domineering. Couldn't she give the boy the benefit of the doubt? Something doubly funny, because Ari knew he was probably telling the truth. Ari's transformation must have affected Cece.
"I don't know what to tell you." He, reasonably, looked exhausted, and so did his two companions. The three of them seemed aware of how close to death they'd come. Without some bizarre fluke, like a dangerous miniboss choosing to let them go, then … they'd be dead.
The reminder shocked Ari, for all that it shouldn't have. Dead. That was the normal concern of an adventurer. Ari didn't know what happened when she was defeated, but hilariously, she thought it'd be a pleasant experience. Or, sort of. Maybe not wholly. But not awful, either. She was hoping for some sort of disciplinary capture where Ari had to attend to her captor's needs for some set amount of time. Maybe the details of the punishment would be specific to the monstergirl who defeated her.
But more to the point, Cece's sparing of the adventurers. Had she retained her empathy, because of Ari's transformation of her? It was the only explanation she could imagine. Why else would she spare a group of defeated adventurers?
Ari had already wanted to track down Cece, if possible, but her desire to do so doubled. She wanted to transform her and have a chat. Figure things out.
As much as Ari wanted to keep listening—and to learn the blond boy and white-haired girl's names—she forced her feet to carry forward. Opal had been shifting side to side, uncomfortable, for the moment Ari had stopped to eavesdrop. She knew the circumstances they were in. How easily it would be to get 'caught', though maybe not the exact consequences. But Ari had emphasized her concern over it, so she, likewise, was concerned.
"Sorry," Ari told her. "Just—I'll explain after."
They hurried forward. Merchants tried to grab Ari's attention, but she knew how to scurry past their stands without being drawn into their sales pitches. Opal, too, kept her head down, but for a different reason. Better no one snatched a peek of pink-goo facial features.
Almost surprisingly—Ari had honestly expected things to go wrong—the two of them made it through the crowd, and stepped into the gaping cavern dungeon entrance. Without wasting a moment, they descended down a sloped, winding tunnel, the light of outside world quickly disappearing.