The next day…
I slid down towards the bottom of the inverted forest using a thick rope that's tied on one of the trees of the Inverted Forest. Though, wildly flailing around is a much better term due to the winds of the inverted forest.
Marulk told me that Ozen's scouts are waiting for me at a cave nearby. He told me that they're going to train me how to delve and help me gain my' memories' back. He also told me that unlike Ozen, they're nice people so I don't have to worry too much.
After flailing for a while, I finally noticed the cave Marulk was talking about. The cave is quite big but not that far from the camp. I can just lower myself down to the bottom of this layer, but I really couldn't stand this wind.
So I swing myself towards the nearest rock and used my pickaxe to grab on to a ledge. Then I hiked down the rock with a pick axe and a pair of thick gloves. It's much faster that way and I don't have to worry about some stupid apes throwing me junks all the time.
Soon enough, I finally met up with the scouts. There are three of them, a tall dude who's a black whistle, an old man and a young man that are a moon whistle. "Yo! Took you a while." The black whistle said.
"Ozen confiscated my Grappling Hook Gun," I replied simply while observing the cave entrance. "So, who are you guys?"
"Name's Simred," the black whistle said. Then he pointed at the younger man. "That's Yelme," finally he pointed at the oldest of them. "That old fossil is Zapo. We're the Subterranean Bandits, a bunch of good-for-nothing who has no place on the surface."
"Well then, my name is Haios, I have no idea who I am but I am definitely not a kid."
Simred gave me a thumb. "Glad to have you here Haios! Now let's see if we can figure out who you are."
I rolled my eyes and walked into the dark cavern. Even though it's dark, the whole place is actually brimming with life. And by life, I mean some category one and two Nope Insectoids slithering and skittering around cave.
There are also some plants and trees growing all around me. A small pond in the distance and lots of bushes all over the place. This place makes a pretty darn good shelter if you ask me, not better than the camp but still...
"So, Haios, right?" I nodded. "Was what Habo said true?" Yelme asked as the four of us ventured deeper into the cavern.
"About what?" I asked while batting away any insect that dared to cross my line of sight with my machete.
"That you tamed a Corpse Weeper."
Oh, that, guess taming a monster isn't a common feat around here. "The trick is, make their life depends on you," I explained simply. "The rest shouldn't be that hard."
"Heh, you're anything but some helpless little girl, are you?" Simred asked suddenly before stopping in his tracks. "Wonder what you were like before losing your memories," then he grabbed his pickaxe and tapped the cavern wall beside him. "You know how to dig right?"
I walked towards the cavern wall and stared at it for a moment. I tapped the wall with my pickaxe and heard something. "Yeah, I think I do..." I muttered while tapping the wall again and again until I can picture the general size of the hole.
Then I started at the very top of the hole and start scaling edges of it. When it seems like the wall is fragile enough, I hit the center with the bottom of pick axe with all my strength.
It kinda worked, the wall toppled down to the inner section of the wall, revealing a small chamber with some egg-shaped artifact, some altar of some sort, and a skeleton because why the heck not?
"A clean cut!" Zapo exclaimed suddenly. "I see that's your preferred mining style, though it's not as effective when you're raiding a much bigger entrance, especially since you're still young."
I nodded in agreement. Zapo's right, I could barely reach the upper part of the entrance. A bigger opening will be much more troublesome. "So, now what?" I asked him.
"Now you raid this cave," Simred said while motioning me to step into the opening. "See if you can find all the artifacts hidden in this area."
I walked into the small cave opening. Some artifacts are obvious, like the egg sitting on the altar and the one lying down near the skeleton. Some are a bit more hidden like a small knife hidden below the altar.
After double-checking the whole place I turned around. "I think that's all."
Simred shook his head and smashed the entrance wall that I broke. It cracked into rubbles, revealing the last artifact hiding below it. "There's nothing more stupid than hiding a non-hidden artifact," he commented while picking up an egg like thing.
"So... These artifacts, what do they do?" I asked as we continued our way venturing the cavern.
"The eggs are pretty much worthless," Yelme said. "That knife tho, it might be a third grade artifact or maybe second if you're extremely lucky."
I looked at the knife I found. "Maybe it's super sharp?" I tried testing it on myself but Simred suddenly grabbed my hand. "Okay, bad idea, sorry."
"Careful now Haios, it could be cursed." Simred took my knife and inspected it closer. "Or is it? It could be an ordinary junk." He handed me back the knife and led me towards a pond of some sort.
"So, what's up with this pond?" I asked them.
"Why don't you have a closer look?" Simred replied.
I shrugged and grabbed my machete. The water seems calm and there are white dots of lights floating on top of it. When I get closer however, the dots seems to be making a way for something very big that's about raise from the pond.
Knowing what comes next, I jumped back and held my machete threateningly. A huge hippo monster burst out of the pond moments later and starts lumbering towards me with its giant mouth opened wide.
"What's that?" I asked while side-stepping its attack. "Monster Hippo?"
"Dinner!" Yelme exclaimed from above a tree along with the rest of the bandits. "If you're staying here, you gotta work for your food too you know?" then he chuckled a little. "Unless you want to help Marulk with housekeeping."
"Heh, that ain't an option," Simred commented. "Between Ozen and the Abyss, I'll take on the Abyss anytime of the day."
"That boy, Marulk, bless his soul and courage to face Lord Ozen daily," Zapo added.
I couldn't help but feel like Ozen is much worse than she appears. Much worse than this hippo that kept trying to eat me at least. "Yo, Mr. Hippo!" I exclaimed, getting his attention and making his next attack much more predictable.
The Hippo charged towards me again, but this time I jumped as high as I can and used the top of its mouth as a leverage. Then I twisted my body around and use my momentum to stab the Hippo's back.
Mr. Hippo growled and tried to shake me off. However, I wanted to test out the knife I just found, so I stabbed the back of its neck with the knife and see if there's anything different.
The knife snapped in half and I swore I can hear the bandits laughing at me from the top of the tree. "Goddammit..." I discarded the broken knife and pulled out my machete from its back. Then I quickly drove it straight into the hippo's thick skull before the hippo could shake me off.
It's much harder than it looks and I barely had enough strength to pull it off. But the machete managed to stab deep enough into the hippo's head to kill it. "Phew, glad that's over with..." I climbed off the giant hippo and the bandits jumped down from the trees.
"Not bad for a solo action," Simred said. "You're certainly better at killing than digging."
I rolled my eyes and walked towards the giant hippo's carcass. I tried pulling out my machete, only to have it broke midway, leaving me with the handle. "Say, I need a new weapon. Does anyone have an indestructible knife lying around?"
"Ah, I found something like that." Yelme said suddenly. "I handed it over to Lord Ozen because of course I have to, so you might wanna ask her about it."
Well, it's not like I can permanently die. So why shouldn't I strike a deal with the devil?