Fire cackling and lit in a dim hallway. A girl with pale blue skin sleeping deeply beside the campfire, surrounded herself with a large piece of fabric. It's Lumiella.
At the next moment, the fire on the campfire began to extinguish little by little and finally, it began smoking as the fire ran out of fuel.
Her face quiver as she mumbled softly and slowly opened her eyelid. She stared at the ceiling of the dungeon cave for a moment and turned her head around to look for Yuichi, but he wasn't there.
Although knowing that Yuichi wasn't there while she was asleep, surprisingly, she didn't panic and was instead incredulous about the scenario.
Concisely, Lumiella isn't the type of a kid who's gonna panic if she's lost in the supermarket or gets left out alone by someone.
Lumiella gradually stood up from the ground and rubbed her eyes as she yawned. She'd thought that he would likely disappear while she was sleeping and come back later on.
This has happened sometimes before. Yuichi often explores the dungeon all by himself and lets Lumiella doze off, never disturbing her adorable slumber.
But it was also that time Lumiella was still in the phase of a curious kid, still comprehending with a face of awe. She would not feel lonely for a particular reason.
When Yuichi came back, he would often see Lumiella staring at the wall like she was just waiting for him to come back. But that's not the case because Lumiella had expected something whenever Yuichi did go out– bringing gifts.
Whenever Yuichi leaves and comes back, he will bring weird gifts for Lumiella once in a while like the ball of silk that he had looted from the Dungeon Spider or a low-quality gemstone.
"..."
As she stared at the campfire, watching the smoke coming out, footsteps slowly resonated on the ground, and noticed as she gradually turned her body towards the sound.
Gradually, the person emerged from the shadow of the dark cavern and it was none other than Yuichi, but with a surprise twist for Lumiella.
Upon seeing Yuichi in the distance, Lumiella noticed that there was a long vibrant sky-blue hair behind Yuichi who appeared to be following. Lumiella widened her eyes in curiosity, intrigued at this.
Momentarily, Yuichi arrived at the location of their temporary settlement. He saw Lumiella standing right beside the extinguished campfire and smiled at her.
"Did I make you wait? I'm sorry, I was exploring this dungeon a little bit," he said while giving someone a back ride.
Well, someone was back riding Yuichi. It was a girl with vibrant sky-blue hair and pointy ears– an elf girl, for sure. It was a surprise.
Lumiella was so curious that she blinked twice before staring at Yuichi with confusion, suggesting that she was asking him who the elven girl might be.
"Oh, this?" Yuichi looked behind at the elven girl and continued, "I don't know either. I will explain once I put her down to the ground."
He gently put down the elven girl behind him and covered her delicate body with the large fabric. Yuichi then briefly explains what happened during his solo expedition to Lumiella.
After finding the dungeon room and finding a girl who is frozen inside a thick wall of ice, Yuichi promptly saves her by finding a rune language of incantation on the wall that dispels the thick ice immediately.
Right after that, he grabbed the girl out of the room and brought her out of the dungeon room. For some reason, he hadn't encountered any potential danger along the way, explaining why he hadn't received any experience points from the dungeon as the system detected his action as "abort".
Aside from that, he also explained to her that he had encountered a crystal golem when he was exploring the dungeon alone before finding the dungeon room, and its strange behavior because, upon encountering the golem, it didn't attack him and retreated instead.
With everything he had seemed to be explained, Yuichi scratched his head and sighed in uncertainty about what to do with the elven girl.
"...That's all I had to say. Before I knew it, I saved her." Yuichi concluded his explanation.
Lumiella stared at him as if she had understood his words, though, her expression seemed quite confused. Abruptly, a growl sound broke out at this very moment.
Lumiella pouted at Yuichi while she was touching her stomach with both hands as it was evident she was hungry.
Yuichi exhales and scratches his head, immediately knowing what to do next after seeing his cute companion pouting at him with demand.
"Yes, I know, I got you something to eat. Let me check on my inventory." Yuichi said and summoned a screen for his inventory.
Yuichi found a consumable in his inventory and gave it to Lumiella. He then proceeded to sit down to rest while Lumiella was eating whatever he gave to her.
Their connection between them seems to be becoming more nonchalant than before, getting closer.
After that, several hours later passed away. Yuichi and Lumiella were still at their current location and they were resting until tomorrow.
Because they were just staying there and doing nothing for now, Lumiella got bored and tried to entertain herself by doing a roll around the ground, slouching on the fabric, and rolling around again.
But that distraction didn't work for her. She was beginning to feel more slack and bored her innocent expression was shifting into that bored girl in the bedroom.
She leisurely stood up and approached Yuichi who was sitting down on the ground and was busy looking around his status.
When she was near him, her attention was instantly diverted to the sky-blue-haired elf girl. She stopped for a moment and looked at the elf girl with her curious expression.
It was an odd reaction as if she had noticed something from the elf girl who was lying down on the ground with the fabric around her. Even Yuichi noticed Lumiella for a moment, and then he continued whatever his doing.
Curious about what she had sensed, Lumiella promptly walks towards the elf girl and she crouches down, gazing at her. If she was reacting this way toward the elf girl, then there must be something she had noticed that Yuichi hadn't noticed yet.
She was crouching for about five minutes and she was still staring at her as if she was waiting for something to come up. Yuichi even finished what he was doing and was about to take a nap.
"Lumiella, I'm going to take some rest. Wake me up if something is happening, okay?" He said and was about to lie down when suddenly he noticed Lumiella's strange behavior.
He looked at Lumiella and pondered for a moment, puzzled by her behavior that he was getting slightly concerned.
"Lumiella?" He called her name but Lumiella didn't turn around and crouched still.
'What is she doing? Is she that paranoid about her?' Yuichi thought.
After all, both he and Lumiella don't know anything about the elf girl he had saved from the dungeon room. Because of this odd behavior, Yuichi was becoming more concerned.
A little information that was almost forgotten to mention a few chapters away is that Lumiella can detect a mana presence precisely and accurately.
The ability she had gained was during her alone time in the dungeon while she was temporarily separated from Yuichi. Although it was an instant event, that mysterious light creature did give her something peculiar.
If she could detect a mana presence from someone with precision and accuracy, then that means that she can also know whether she's superior or inferior.
Aside from that, it also helps her to be aware of her surroundings all the time from a radius of 50 meters or 164 feet. Not only that, she can predict their location accurately.
Sensing something coming from the elf girl, Lumiella stayed static from her position as she continued to stare down at the elf girl.
'Maybe she was interested in the elf's hair? They both had a similar hair color...' Yuichi thought and turned away.
But then, Lumiella let a little sound out of her mouth and stiffened her body. Yuichi heard it and turned around, seeing Lumiella still crouching in her position as if she was oddly surprised.
Yuichi couldn't watch any more longer than this and he stood up from the ground, slowly approaching Lumiella on her back. But he will not expect what happen next.