The dungeon (10)

:plop…..plop……plop:

A small puddle of warm blood on cold snow and the vapours of melting snow testifying the blood hotness. Drops of blood falling in it contribute to its growth and a hand at odds with it.

Mahiru rushes towards Hikaru and starts healing his wound. The mana exhaustion of Mahiru didn't let her completely heal all the wounds but the fatal wound in the abdomen was somewhat healed. She reaches the wound once again by her hand and tries to heal it.

“Don't bother doing it.” Hikaru stops her.

‘Why?”

“It won't be worth it. Let me heal naturally. If you use all of the mana then there will be no one to keep us safe until we get out of this floor.”

The students rush towards them. The expression of both relief and worry covers their faces.

“Then one of the students can heal you” suggests Mahiru.

Mai comes close to HIkaru out of worry and starts healing but Hiaru cuts her off in the middle.

“Nah..I don't want to carry them on my shoulders later.”

Mai gets annoyed.

“I am not that heavy for your information”

“I didn't mean it in that way. I know you weight like a petal”

‘Stop your sarcasm sir.”

“Ehhh? You think it's sarcasm? well maybe it's not your fault I can't make any facial expressions. It's tiring. And the same goes for you if any of you used your mana to heal me how will you help yourself when in danger? And if something happened to you, how will I answer your parents and siblings?”

HIkaru pauses to breathe.

“And that vega should also be around here.”

That sounds like a reasonable answer to Mahiru as a fellow teacher.

“Sir is right. Now let's get moving.” Mahiru helps Hikaru to stand up.

“Tsk” Mai clicks her tongue.

“What? you wanted to help sir?” Whispers Enha In Mai’s ear.

‘LIke i would”

“Ya ya I know”

They walked more in search of the way to the next floor while keeping their eyes on the surroundings. Matching the pace with Hikaru.

No other powerful monster was in their way, only some wolves and ice golems which were defeated by Mahiru and the students without any stress.

Behind some dead trees they found the way to the previous floor. They took it and reached a rather peaceful place than the previous ones.

Greenery welcomes them.A motherly warmth lowering their body temperature back to normal. Full ground covered in grass. Fresh wind hitting their faces. A pseudo sky to brighten up their faces. The sound of rustling leaves and wind flowing just low enough to touch the tip of the grasses. All of that was calming their racing hearts from the previous scenarios. l .

They walked a little towards the big tree in front of them. On the way they saw a waterfall and some trees with fruits on them.

Mahiru was walking in the front and HIkaru in back with his own pace.

“Looks our food problem is solved” Mahiru turns towards HIkaru.

‘le----WHAT?” Shouted in shock. All the students follow her reaction and look at Hikaru.

All of them stare behind Hikaru.

“what?” Hikaru turns back.

A body, a true copy of Hikaru, was standing behind him. The only difference they had was that the copy had distorted eyes. Scary enough to freak out others.

Hikaru who was too tired to even give a reaction through his face gives him quick look from head to toe and says

“I am not that ugly, Michi”

Michi is a creature who toys with other beings by stealing their things or making a mirage of their prey.They are also found outside of dungeons in forests. They are not hostile creatures.

Their memories hit them in the head and they remember the creature Michi’ existence.

“Mimimimi” laughs in his/her silly way and erases the mirage which shows his/her figure.

Long ears. Longer than her head. Small cute round eyes and limbs. The small body which will make someone want to protect her. That milky white in appearance creature flies in circles around Hikaru.

“It's a female one!” points out one of the students.

Female Michi are white while males are black.

“Look I don't want to play now so let us go” said Hikaru and started walking.

They walked up to the tree. Hikaru rests beside its trunk. There was a narrow gap which led to an open space inside the trunk.Others put their stuff there and started searching for any type of food.

After some time they came back with enough fruits for everyone, extra to eat the next day and the position of the way to the next floor . They calmed down their hunger and rested a bit. They decided to take a bath after resting near the waterfall.

The ladies insisted on taking the bath first. Hikaru kept eyes on the boys. After they finished, the boys went to take a bath.

The day time changed to night on the floor slowly.

All the students slept inside. Females on one side and the males on the other. Mahiru was on guard so that Hikaru could rest. Hikaru was sitting with his back against the tree trunk and legs stretched out on. Mahir was walking in front of him.

She takes a peek inside to check if the students are asleep, after making sure she sits beside Hikru and asks.

“ You become a different person when you fight.”

With a little delay Hikaru replies.

“Ya I do. When I'm in a real battle the only thing that my mind tells me to do is to kill the one in front of me. I found out about it when i used to go in dungeons with Sana”

"With Sana?”

‘“Yes. It was a fun time when we spent days and nights in a dungeon, around mountains, near the lakes and in jungles, there was also the training which I can say was not fun at all.”

‘Oh is that so…. you travelled a lot with Sana Huh?”

‘We covered most of the Continent”

“I see”

An uneasiness was covering Mahiru's heart listening to that. Breathing felt more heavier and conscious.She didn't want to listen anymore about it.

“I remebr-” HIkaru looks the opposite side of Mahiru while speaking.

Mahiru turns her head to find the cause of the sudden stoppage.

Michi was again there, this time making a mirage of Mahiru. Hikaru flinched a little.

“Oh! It's you Michi! My heart almost jumped out there for a second.”

This time the mirage was perfect, not any type of distortion of eyes or anything, just like looking at the real itself.

“It's perfect this time. Are you the same one from before?”

She erased the mirage , it was the same one.

“You are learning.” said Hikaru and patted her head.

She laughed in her silly way again and leaned beside him.

“Do your wounds still hurt?” asked Mahiru.

“I can't fight any serious battles. If I do, the wounds will reopen or either internal bleeding will start.”

“I will take care of all the fights. You can keep an eye on the students.”

“Thanks and sorry for making you fight all the battle.”

“Don't worry about that. For now just sleep, you need a good amount of rest.”

‘Thanks. Good night."

“Good Night”

The morning came.

:Thump:

Hikaru falls sideways like his usual days in bed. But this time something was different. The ground wasn't hard. It had some warmth. A soft feeling. A feeling like sleeping on someone's lap.

Hikaru half opens his eyes to look after the cause. He turns his head to look at the tree branches but a face blocks his view.

Hikarus glares at the face with his half asleep eyes.

The face was familiar. He rubs his eyes and looks once again. For a split second Hikaru tried to get up but he didn't. He raised his hand to pinch her cheeks and said

“Michi you will never fool me”

The redness bloomed on the cheeks.Averting her eyes as she clears the mix up

‘Sorry but i am the real deal”

“Eh?”

A silence fills the air.

HIkarus pulls back his hand and rolls over Mahiru’s lap. Stood up and cleans his clothes. Scratches the back of his head and says

“Sorry. I thought it was MIchi”

“Its okay”

Mahirus stands up. Faces another way and goes to wake up the students while rubbing her cheeks where Hikaru pinched her with a tiny embarrassing smile.

She wakes up all the students. They eat the fruits they collected yesterday, take a bath and get ready to head towards the next floor.

The way to the next floor was through a teleportation circle, large enough to teleport 5 persons at once. Firstly Mahiru went through it, after some time the students started going in a group of five and lastly Hikaru went through it.

They get teleported to an area made of some stones used for making a castle, a platform on which they teleported ,some paths and small building halls built upon water.Full floor felt like a big room.

Most of the area was covered by water, sea plants coming out and flowers blossomed on them,some ruined walls and their roofs of small rooms visible on the upper surface of water.

While everyone was capturing that beautiful sight of the clean water and its surrounding match up environment a humming echoed in the floor.

:Plop:

“Hummmmmmmmm………..Heeeeeeyyyyyyyyyy—”