Vol. 1 Chapter 9: Qalupalik

***A couple of days ago…***

The blaring song of a rock band pierced through the stillness of early morning inside the room where the members of OyasumiSe7en slept. The time was 2:17 a.m.; it came from Rico’s divider, and the scout was still half-asleep when she answered it.

“Hello…”

A familiar voice came from the other side of the line. “Child, we need to talk.”

At once, the sleepiness from Rico dissipated. Her sudden movement also woke up Alice from the other side of the divided, and while the brawler checked on her, she gestured that she was fine.

“It’s father,” she told Alice in whispers.

The brawler looked at her with anxious eyes, but the former reassured her everything was fine, so the latter went back to her bed. Not wishing to have her friend hear their conversation, Rico got up, and went to the balcony.

“Where are you right now?”

“I’m in the Philippines, father. In Manila.”

“You didn’t even tell us you’re going there.”

The scout said nothing. Deep in her mind, she didn’t want him to know she was there. However, she couldn’t throw her phone away. Rico knew the capabilities of her family if ever she abruptly ‘cut’ ties with them.

“I…” she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, before saying, “I’m with my former teammates.”

“Former? You got accepted again?”

“No, I mean, my teammates from OyasumiSe7en.”

There was silence on the other side of the line. Rico could only wish that her father wasn’t angry.

“That party destroyed you.”

“They are my friends!”

“You know you can’t escape your family’s destiny. And your friends in that party didn’t help you improve in your craft!”

“I don’t care about that. I just want to live as I like…”

Another deafening silence. Then, after a few minutes, she heard a sigh. Her father spoke once again, “Look, you’re supposed to succeed me as the heir of this lineage. But you chose to live like a barbarian, deviating from the discipline of your ancestors in favor of unruly people you call ‘adventurers.’ Let’s talk then, if I can’t appeal to you as a father to his child, then our talk will be as a master to his disciple.”

“Alright then, please speak.”

“You have a week,” he reiterated. “You may not know it, but I have people inside the Adventurers’ Agency. If your performance doesn’t improve, then I myself will come to get you.”

Rico could feel cold sweat stream down her cheeks. “Y-Yes, I understand.”

-----

**Yuuki**

I asked Temaire to have our party take some rest today. We’d been practicing at the simulation for days that somehow, we slowly got acquainted to the stress and chaos of the battlefield once again. However, the repeatedly dismal results wouldn’t help us in the long run; even I who kept my ‘edge’ all this time was starting to get affected by our repeated failures.

A day-off will not be that bad…

“…”

Any case, once my alarm rang, I immediately got up of my bed—which was actually the sofa at the living area. My goal was to get our breakfast ready before the other awakened. I wasn’t the one assigned to cook, though; the ladies drew lots before, regarding who would cook for a certain day. My assignment was every Sunday; Temaire got Tuesdays and Fridays, Alice was every Mondays and Thursdays, and Rico was in-charge of Wednesdays and Saturdays.

It is Friday today…

Nevertheless, I couldn’t allow the ladies to prepare our breakfast. I mean, any lonely bloke would certainly love having someone prepare food for them when they woke up, but not me. The reason was mainly because…

“Fall in-love with me. Fall madly in-love with me.” Once, I woke up to some strange incantations at the kitchen. As we lived in a relatively small place, I could always catch a glimpse of the kitchen without moving from where I sleep. And there she was, my childhood friend, Henrietta Temaire Louise, spiking my food with her love potions.

“Get horny…Ravish me…”

Yep, good thing I asked Lady Yanari to get me some antidote for love potions, so I could always negate the effects of Temaire’s magic. Not that I don’t like her, but I don’t plan to marry right now. University is waving; I can’t lose focus now.

But Temaire was not my only problem…

“Y-Yuuki, n-not there…”

“What are you talking about? I’m sleeping…”

“Ah! S-Stop, d-don’t…”

“Alice, don’t play jokes on me…” I was roused from my slumber when I realized I was sleep-talking. I didn’t know why I dreamed of Alice speaking like that, but since I thought it was a dream, I went back to sleep.

However…

“Hnngh!”

My eyes immediately opened. Yep, I was not dreaming; I heard Alice’s voice come from the kitchen. Turning around, I saw her…supposedly preparing the breakfast, sitting on the table, doing that ‘lonely deed.’ I quickly closed my eyes; it was my first time seeing her look like that. The Alice I knew was always gruff and direct. The one before me looked so vulnerable and sweet, and I got to admit, she was different…and attractive.

So, I spent several days trying to shake off her lewd face that burned into my mind.

I guess Rico’s the only normal one among my companions, but no…

There was a time I woke up with a small pipe on my mouth.

“…”

Honestly, there were times I sleep with my mouth open, especially when I was tired. Worse, I couldn’t remember much what happened the night before, so assuming it was just some harmless stuff I forgot, I removed it and went back to sleep. Looking at my phone before I closed my eyes, it was 5 a.m. on a Saturday morning. I knew the sounds at the kitchen was Rico preparing the breakfast, so I didn’t mind her.

“…” The noise suddenly stopped, and I heard her light footsteps coming towards the sofa. Not wishing to disturb her, I feigned sleep.

“Yuuki…” she whispered. “Are you awake?”

I didn’t know if she noticed me moving, but I never answered her. I was still sleepy, and just want to continue sleeping. Then, I felt her hand on the sofa, and her breath close to my ears. Soon enough, there was a wet, warm sensation on my cheeks, that slowly crawled into my lips…

What the hell is going on?

I opened my eyes slightly. Much to my shock, Rico just licked my lips, and collected the pipe, which she hid inside her brassiere. Then, still feigning sleep, I heard her say,

“Thank you for the breakfast, Yuu-kun.”

Yep, from then on, I will prepare breakfast.

-----

I was surprised when I saw Rico at the kitchen. Likewise, she nearly jumped from her chair when she saw me.

“You’re up?” she asked.

“Yeah.” I looked at the nearby clock. It was 4:35 a.m., Friday. “I thought it is Temaire who is in-charge of breakfast?”

“I…couldn’t sleep,” Rico smiled at me. “And since we’re not training today, I decided to look for some good places to go.”

“Ah, you want to spend the day sightseeing?”

She nodded, “Something like that, yes.”

“Alone, I presume?”

“Yep.”

“I see…” Well, I noticed she prepared for her trip. There was a map on her phone, and she took down notes. And I agree; in moments like this, Rico should go sightseeing to relax. Slumps couldn’t be avoided, but resting could also help getting past through it. So, I went to the counter and got some ingredients to cook. “What time will you leave? Eat breakfast here.”

“Yes…” her voice trailed.

“Rico.”

“Hm?”

“Don’t think too much about your performance in simulation,” I reminded her. “We always have those ‘bad days,’ or even ‘bad years.’ What’s important is that you cover for us, and we cover for you.”

“Yes, it’s what teammates are for, right?”

“You got it!” I took our coffee maker and asked her, “Want some?”

“Why not? I always love the stuff you do,” she chuckled. “I feel really at home with your cooking.”

“I’m glad you think of my cooking that way. But even so, this is just brewed coffee.” Honestly, having someone tell you they enjoy the things you create was like a ‘happy pill’ for me.

“Yuuki…”

“Yep?”

“Is there…r-really…what you said before, you know, those ‘bad years?’”

“When I was young, there was a time when I didn’t draw anything for an entire year because the idea wasn’t there.”

“What did you do?”

“To gain back my ideas? Well, I stopped. I even thought I won’t come back to drawing, but well, here I am.”

“What made you lose your ideas, anyway?”

I paused for a moment, trying to remember those younger years of mine. “I guess it’s because I realized, nothing’s happening with what I do. No improvements. No praises. Nothing. It can be pretty discouraging, see?”

“Oh…”

“But well, to get my ‘groove’ back, I stopped. I’ll be honest; I thought that’s it for me, no more drawing after. However, I eventually got back to it after some time. If it’s for me, it’ll definitely come back.”

“Having lots of expectations on you can be a bummer, no?” Rico suddenly said.

“Well, not that people are expecting something from me,” I pointed out. “But I get what you mean. Rico, you don’t need to force yourself, you know? We can understand what you’re going through, and we can wait for you. Just take it easy, okay?”

I gave her a head pat, and our scout said nothing after that.

-----

***The city of Bacoor***

Rico left the Adventurers’ Agency sometime before 9 a.m., heading to the south, into a city called Bacoor in the province of Cavite. She had been looking for small dungeons to practice her marksmanship, and her online search yielded several results, including unexplored ones.

“The Salinas Dungeon, huh?” she would glance at her phone occasionally, confirming the name of the dungeon that attracted her interest. Like many living organisms, dungeons get ‘born’ and ‘die,’ depending on the supply of magic in the surrounding area. The Salinas dungeon was a new one that suddenly appeared in the community called Salinas. As it was unexplored, the Adventurers’ Agency in Bacoor immediately closed its vicinity to civilians, to keep anyone from entering.

As such, only gold and platinum adventurers were allowed to take quests there, mainly for exploring the area.

“Your adventurer’s ID please…”

Rico said nothing as she gave the quest clerk her card.

“Tsukushi, 18 years old. Chinese-American. Platinum band, no party. Role: scout. Is this information correct?”

“Yes, I confirm.”

The clerk looked at her computer again. Then, she told her, “Yes, we have an exploration quest for the Salinas dungeon, from the director of our branch herself. However, we need a party of at least three golden band adventurers before we allow access. We need you to party up with two more people; would you like me to find you an available party in our database?”

Rico froze when she heard the question. In her mind, that voice returned again…

“You’re a platinum adventurer, Tsukushi! A target as close as that is easy for you! Yet, not only did you miss the target, you also failed to disarm the traps!”

She shook her head.

“Miss?”

“No, thank you,” Rico claimed back her ID and retreated from the quest counter. Because of the relatively small size of the dungeon, she thought it was available for exploration with just one adventurer. Nevertheless, the scout had no intention of giving up; while ‘officially’ she couldn’t enter the dungeon, her skills as a scout wouldn’t prevent her from doing so.

And there’s no violation if she will never get caught…

“…”

Taking a deep breath, Rico left the Adventurers’ Agency and headed straight to the Salinas dungeon entrance.

-----

Salinas dungeon materialized inside a residential area, which was why its entrance was a house. It was cordoned off by the police, cooperating with the Adventurers’ Agency, and augmented by some soldiers—a few were former adventurers themselves.

By the time Rico arrived, there was a party of four gold band adventurers waiting to enter the dungeon. Two scouts, one team leader and the porter; a standard reconnaissance party composition. Everyone was armed with assault rifles, pistols and combat knives, though the team leader also carried a shotgun. They were also equipped with Kevlar armor, and padded steel infused with magic for protection against archaic weapons.

In contrast, Rico wore her casual clothes; a dark blouse, short denims and rubber sneakers. She never wore combat fatigues in quests; she wore clothes she was comfortable with. Her mastery of the Void magic afforded her the ‘Dimension Storage’ spell, so she could pull everything she needed, plus a few travel luxuries. And just to ensure that she wouldn’t be traced, she kept her motorcycle inside her Void storage.

Rico waited a few distances away, observing the party to be permitted inside the dungeon. Using her stealth skills, she let herself in before the police and soldiers seal off the entrance. Good thing the machine detector they brought was low-level; she easily went past that by casting a Void spell.

“Where’s the actual dungeon?” asked one of the adventurers, consulting the map uploaded on his phone.

“It says it’s on the second floor,” his companion answered.

Honestly, the house interior seemed normal. Its former occupants had no time to gather their belongings before leaving the place. The TV set was still there, dinner was on the table…though half-eaten, and with several days passed, already spoiled. The floor area was typical of the Filipino homes decent enough to shelter a family of six. However, everyone noted the creepy silence of the house as they carefully checked every corner.

As Rico wanted to get ahead of the adventurers, she raced to the second floor. There were three bedrooms; the room with the smallest doorframe was the one open, and the actual connection to the dungeon. Before the adventurers got there, the scout went in.

“…” At once, Rico was greeted by a dark, and damp, cobblestone tunnel. In the middle of Salinas was a creek, so it was no surprise to see the watery condition inside. As she couldn’t use a flashlight, lest she risk her presence detected, she brought out her night-vision goggles. Once she got her rifle ready, Rico began exploring the dungeon.

For a few meters from the entrance, the place was clear. The only problem many adventurers would encounter here were the disgustingly wet walls, and slippery floor. However, her sneakers had been infused with magic that allowed her to walk even at the ceilings, so she progressed at a normal phase. The tunnels were similar in appearance, and if she didn’t mark the places she had been, it was easy to get lost in the labyrinth.

Speaking of getting lost, how are those adventurers who came with her faring?

This was one of the risks of exploring new dungeons. As the magic was still unstable, it could continue expanding, or closing paths or tunnels, effectively trapping unsuspecting adventurers. Worse, the monster inside could also be trapped; many adventurers in exploring missions died by getting themselves locked with monsters.

At one turn, Rico finally encountered her first enemies; a group of kappa ‘defending’ their territory. The kappa was a staple monster of Japanese stories, feared snatchers of children’s souls. What made them infamous was their knack for pulling people into the water, with the intention of drowning them. With that information, as well as the condition of the tunnels itself, Rico confirmed that the Salinas dungeon was imbued with water magic.

“…” Using her rifle’s scope, she counted up to 13 kappa. While she was outnumbered, Rico could fight them on advantageous terms, as these monsters were considered ‘weak’ and easily killed. But, as she was ‘illegally’ inside, the scout debated whether to engage or not while the other adventuring party was there, as doing so would give her presence away to them.

But…

“!!!” Several shots rang throughout the dungeon. The sounds startled the kappa group, and they moved towards the noise. Rico surmised that it was the adventurers earlier, and while they were busy repelling the monsters they attracted, she moved deeper into the tunnels.

-----

With her stealth skills, Rico easily got past waves of monsters heading to the battle. She kept marking the turns she did, but she was starting to believe this dungeon was a huge one; the house outside was just a façade for the big labyrinth yet to be explored. Soon, she heard explosions, as the adventurers must’ve resorted to throwing magic and grenades to the mass of enemies converging on their spot.

“…”

Rico stopped in her tracks. Through her night-vision goggles, she saw the mark she put in one of the corners she already passed. Cold sweat formed on her forehead the moment she confirmed that it was a previous route…

That means the dungeon is still shifting!

The scout then started to retrace her steps. Shifting dungeons were for those dungeons that often change its paths every second or minute. Such cases were rare, but it was the biggest headache for exploring parties. Maps were useless for these types, and even the most experienced adventurers could vanish or killed, should they come unprepared.

And she is unprepared…

As Rico went back the way she came, soon, she was brought to the place where the adventurers earlier stood their ground. The other scouts played the roles of tanks, holding the line against wave after wave of kappa trying to overwhelm their positions. Behind them, the team leader shouted orders, while taking out the more powerful enemies. The porter was also hard-pressed, as some of the monsters flanked them and appeared behind.

“Keep that entrance open!” shouted the team leader. “We need to retreat as soon as the waves are killed!”

However, the monsters just keep growing in number. The porter tried her best to guard their logistics, ran to supply her teammates and keep the entrance open at the same time, but she was getting tired with the multiple responsibilities.

Rico knew that she had to intervene. More than worry about getting reprimanded for her violation, she couldn’t stomach the thought that she would abandon these people to their fates. Taking a deep breath, she ran to the defensive positions and revealed herself.

“What the fuck—” the team leader blurted out. “Where did you come from?”

“I’m Tsukushi, a platinum.” She showed him her ID. “I’m also a scout.”

“Eldron, team leader of Heirloom,” he replied as he fired his rifle. “My teammates are Joey, and Bere; the scouts, and Jeni, our porter. We are all gold bands.”

“Okay, got it. Are you still continuing the exploration?”

“Hell no! We’re retreating!”

“That’s right; this is a shifting dungeon,” she revealed. “We need to get out of here before the route changes!”

“Okay then…I’ll hold the line, get my teammates back in the house!”

“No, I’ll do it!” Rico brought out her anti-materiel rifle. “Order Joey and Bere to retreat behind me!”

At once, Eldron radioed for his teammates to disengage, which they quickly did. Joey was already wounded, and Bere dragged her to safety. As their medic, Jeni assisted once they reached the doorway. Meanwhile, Rico covered for them; her anti-materiel rifle cut swathes of death and destruction among the monster ranks.

“So, this is the power of a platinum band!” Jeni muttered to her team leader.

Soon, however, her anti-materiel rifle used all its bullets. Rico couldn’t reach to her storage, as doing so would give her enemies time to close in on her. Usually, this duty was done by Yuuki, her porter. But this time, she was alone…and she couldn’t let anyone help her, or it would affect her performance.

“You made yourself vulnerable by relying on people! We are descendants of legendary assassins; we work alone! Don’t shame us anymore!

Switching to her sniper rifle, Rico made short work of the kappa nearest to her position. One shot to the head was enough to kill the monsters, however, with their sheer numbers, she found herself fighting with her rifle in one hand, and a pistol in the other.

“Tsukushi, get back here!” Eldron shouted. “We’re already evacuated!”

But she didn’t listen. In her mind, only one thing remained: Rico was an assassin. She worked alone!

When the bullets were all used up, the scout switched to her daggers. Cutting through the kappa waves trying to overwhelm her, she felt something exhilarating within her chest…

The slump is no more there! Her movements flowed smoothly like water.

With daggers in both hands, Rico slashed towards the monster ranks, as if a bladed tornado plowing through an army. For the ones that tried to jump on her, she countered it with a roundhouse kick, though her shoes had hidden blades that stabbed its unfortunate victim. Using her Void magic, she would obliterate an entire group by sucking them into a dimensional portal. If there were survivors, she immediately killed them with a stealth attack that slashed the monster’s necks.

“Tsukushi!” the team leader of Heirloom called out to her once again. “Let’s go! The entrance is closing!”

Rico returned to her senses. But, at the same time, something happened with the kappa; as the dungeon entrance shifted, the monsters retreated. And in its place, a big, hulking silhouette of another monster appeared. With her slump lifted, Rico was electrified to realize that the enemy before her was the feared Qalupalik—a creature of horror from the Inuit folktales and a formidable mini-boss she once faced with her second party when they were adventuring in the Arctic dungeon.

“What are you doing?”

At that moment, Eldron’s voice suddenly became muffled in Rico’s ears. Turning her back from safety, she faced the Qalupalik, determined to defeat it.

So that advice from the internet is true! My slump is already gone, and this creature will be my first trophy in a while!