The familiar feeling of nausea washed over me. Looking around, I saw that I was still in the dungeon. I didn't see any teleportation circle to go back, either. I was in a small room with a passage leading up.
With no choice, I shut myself in the cave to recover from the battle. Only when I healed did I head out. Naked and bloody, I cleaned off and returned to my state before my beating. I also made some clothes: a simple tunic and dress pants with high boots.
The clothes made of mana couldn't compare to real clothes, but I'd gotten used to it by now. Around a year ago, my clothes completely burned off in a battle, but they were in bad shape even before that.
I demolished the sealing magic I had put up earlier and set off through the path. Soon enough, I reached a little clearing. It was slightly bigger than where I'd teleported into.
In the middle was a chest, the only loot I had found in the dungeon. Most dungeons would have loot to make them worth conquering, but the Hydra dungeon was bare until now. Slightly excited, I walked over to the chest.
A dungeon of this difficulty must have at least equally good treasure. I knelt on one knee as I slowly opened the chest. I half expected it to be a mimic, but the dungeon master wasn't a monster, it seemed.
Inside the chest lay two stones. Both stood sparkling atop a bed of hay. The stone to the left was rough and sharp, tinted with a shade of blue and green. The stone on the right was smoother, almost like an egg. It was a deep purple and brown.
I recognized the left rock as adamantine; a hunk this big could pay for the entire Bellmont castle. The right rock was less inviting. This was the first time I had seen something like it. It was hollow, so I thought it might have been an egg, but I couldn't feel anything.
Both would take more time to use or research, so I threw them in my shadow storage and continued. I continued up the tunnel, on guard for anything else the dungeon might throw at me. I was in a different part of the dungeon, but the mana density told me it was as dangerous.
After walking for another ten minutes, I felt a change in the mana, and the density suddenly dropped. I looked back only to find a blank wall from where I had come from. I tried to go through the wall, but it was reinforced, and I couldn't break it. It was stronger than even the dungeon walls.
Looking back at the tunnel, I saw that the rocks had changed. Instead of the brown earth of the dungeon, this was gray rock. For a minute, I was confused. I looked around, trying to figure it out. When I finally took a step back, the realization dawned on me.
"I escaped." These were the first words to come out of my mouth in two years. At least, the first words that weren't incantations.
I felt like crying, but I still had to get out. I managed to hold on and continued up the tunnel. After another good 20 minutes of walking, I could feel I was approaching the end. My mana sense felt the cave opening up.
I started walking faster, then speed-walking, and at last, running to the exit. As my senses expanded, I tasted freedom. I made it out. I stood in front of the cave opening, slack-jawed. It was night, and I stood looking up through the surrounding trees at the vibrant stars.
I jumped to the top of the hill the cave poked through to get a clearer look. I stood above everything, and silent tears rolled down my cheek. I looked at the three moons in the sky, and a sense of grandeur and existentialism rolled over me.
The stars, as plentiful as grains of sand, sparkled in the night sky. The gentle caress of the wind and swaying of the trees filled my ears. Below my feet, I could feel the vibrant life teeming in the soil. I was finally free.
For the rest of the night, I stood there, looking at the movement of the stars and the flow of time. The sun came up, waking me from my stupor. Once again, I stared at the dawn in amazement.
For the first time in years, sunlight shone on my face. As the songbirds chirped, I felt nostalgic. Memories of waking up to the sun's rays and the songs of the morning birds coursed through my mind. And just as quickly, they were gone again: remembered, then forgotten.
I took a final look around. A great forest surrounded me on every side, stretching for miles. A vast mountain range went from north to east. Only the south seemed free, the illusions of a plain on the horizon.
I got down from the hill and started walking south. I walked for hours, listening to the forest and looking at nature. It was a couple of hours before I sensed anyone. My mana sense ranged 2 kilometers away, so finding people was easy, given enough time.
The people were moving toward me, so I sat in a tree, waiting for them. As they neared, I sensed they were at the fifth rank. It appeared to be a caravan. The fifth-ranked guards surround carriages(I assumed) of people.
When they were a minute away, I jumped down. My best chance of getting to civilization was to ride with them. The closer they came, the more I saw.
Three armored people headed the caravan. Each had a Lime core and was in various spots of the fifth-tempering stage.
Behind them was a carriage, and behind the carriage, a cart cage full of people. Ten more guards surrounded the charge.
'Slavers.' The thought disgusted me.
While outlawed in the Aeulus Empire, where I was raised, slavery was still allowed in many parts of the world. As I looked at the guards, I realized they were daemons. All the guards were daemons. The prisoners were of all races: humans, elves, beastmen, dwarves, and even their kin of daemons.
I was confused. The dwarves, elves, and beastmen were regular trade partners with the daemons. But, humans and daemons seldom had contact. It is forbidden in all three human empires to travel to the forbidden continent of daemons.
This interracial slavery could lead to war once again. As I contemplated whether to leave, the guards had already noticed me.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here? A human girl, huh?" The middle of the three guards was the first to speak as they rode up on me. They all were on big warhorses, almost twice my height.
'Girl? Who the hell are these bitches talking about?'
Looking at myself, I found my appearance pretty feminine. My hair was long, down to my hips, and my clothes were loose. My face had always been pretty feminine, so it wasn't too surprising they had mistaken me.
When I was young, it was common for people to mistake me for a girl.
"You lost little girl?" jeered the guard to the left.
"Put her with the others, " the guard to the right ordered a guard behind him.
They moved past, not paying much attention to me as the other guards put me in the cage with the others. I didn't resist. Someone had to lead me to the camp; this was more straightforward.