Chapter 26 — Meat Sandwich

Chapter 26 — Meat Sandwich

A couple of hours after we left the city, a small village appeared ahead of us—or rather, a tent town.

Tents stood on all sides, dozens of them, and a bit further back I could see several stone buildings, two or maybe even three stories tall.

When we got closer, I realized one of those buildings was an Adventurer’s Guild.

Well, that made sense. There was a dungeon nearby—of course there’d be a guild.

Although… then why was there one in the city too?

Whatever. I don’t really understand how the whole guild system is structured. Maybe it’s supposed to be like this.

It looked like adventurers lived in the tents.

Some people clearly looked like merchants—selling weapons and supplies.

The atmosphere was lively, noisy, always moving—someone was repairing armor, someone was eating, someone was arguing.

A proper temporary adventurer camp in front of a dungeon entrance.

I thought we’d be pitching a tent here as well.

But judging by how Damon, Roder, and Soren just kept walking forward without looking around, it didn’t seem like that was the plan.

“Oh, looks like this is your first time here?” Damon asked, glancing back.

“Yeah. I only arrived in the city yesterday,” I answered. “So this place is new to me. Before that, I lived in a pretty remote village, and honestly, I don’t have much experience with camps like this. Or with this world in general.”

Damon chuckled, as if I’d said something amusing, clapped me on the shoulder, and said:

“Don’t worry. As an adventurer, you’ll see a lot more of this world.”

“Aren’t we going to set up a tent?” I asked.

“Why would we? We’re not planning to stay long. We’ll work today, and by night we’ll be back in the city—celebrating and blowing our earnings,” Damon said, laughing.

Roder and Soren laughed along with him.

Maybe that is the adventurer lifestyle—risking your life, earning money, and then blowing it all on having fun?

I don’t know… sounds a bit careless to me.

“Well, if we do end up staying here,” Damon continued, “there’s an inn nearby. We’ll stay there.”

“An inn?” I repeated.

“Yeah, see that building?” He pointed at a stone structure up ahead. “The three-story one. That one.”

I looked where he pointed. For three floors, the building seemed a bit low, but maybe that was just the angle or how it was built.

“If there’s an inn, then why are so many people still camping?” I asked.

“To save money,” Damon replied. “Why waste coin on a room if you can just put up a tent? It’s not like the inn here is all that comfortable either. So most adventurers prefer tents—cheaper and what they’re used to.”

“I see…” I muttered.

He was probably right.

We headed toward a lone stone building.

Lone, because there were no tents or other structures right next to it.

It felt like everything else—the tents, even the other stone buildings—was intentionally set a little away from it, like they were avoiding this place, yet still surrounding it.

What is this building, anyway?
Maybe that’s where they keep something important? Or someone who manages the whole camp lives there?.. No idea.

As we got closer, I felt something strange.

Hard to explain—like a light pressure, something familiar yet unsettling.

Moving even closer, I noticed there were no doors—just a rectangular opening, wide enough for several people to walk through side by side.

The ceiling inside was high, the walls smooth—and there was no movement in the darkness.

And then… four adventurers stepped out of it.

I swear, there was no one there a second ago.

I’d been looking directly at the entrance, but they appeared as if from nowhere, as though they’d walked out of the darkness itself.

From their faces, you could see how tired they were—heavy steps, slumped shoulders.

They passed by us without sparing us a glance.

“Well then, you ready, Alisar?” Damon asked.

I looked at him. He actually seemed serious now.

Roder and Soren were getting ready too: the archer already had an arrow nocked, and the other swordsman had drawn his blade.

I’d thought we might rest a bit…

Whatever. If they were ready, I should be too.

Asking if we could take a break would just be awkward.

Although, to be fair, I really wasn’t tired.

“I’m ready,” I said, drawing my sword and gripping it with both hands.

Me and the other swordsman entered the building first.

Inside was pitch black, same as the entrance to the rabbit dungeon I’d gone into so many times.

So all dungeon entrances are like this?

Although… this was only the second dungeon I’d ever been in.

And in World of Chaos, that game… what did dungeon entrances look like?

I couldn’t even remember. I think it was just a loading screen, and then the character appeared inside.

Whatever. None of that mattered now.

I wasn’t even sure this world was World of Chaos.

But one thing was clear: the higher my level, the better.

After a few steps, I found myself in a huge hall—about a hundred meters long and fifty meters wide.

The ceiling was very high too, twenty meters at least, maybe twenty-five.

The whole place was lit by dozens—no, hundreds—of torches.

Their light reflected off the stone walls, creating this odd sense of shifting movement.

Three sides of the hall were surrounded by massive stone walls, and the fourth opened into multiple passages—ten… no, twelve.

From what I could see, some of them were lit, and some were completely dark.

About five of them were dim and unlit, while seven had torches burning inside.

I walked a bit closer to one of the lit passages.

Roder stopped at another.

“Let’s go with this one,” Damon said. “Doesn’t really matter which. They’re all the same.”

Might as well ask now.

“You said they’re the same, but why are some of them not lit at all? It’s completely dark in there,” I asked.

“Oh, those are the corridors other adventurers already went through,” Damon explained. “Until the monsters respawn, the corridor stays dark. So people pick the passages where the torches are lit—that means the monsters have already respawned.”

“Ah, got it…” I nodded.

So this dungeon wasn’t like the rabbit one. There, it had only one passage, and when one party went through, everyone else had to wait about an hour for the monsters to respawn. Maybe in the future that dungeon would become like this one too—with multiple corridors.

All right, enough spacing out.

I was in a dungeon. I should be ready for a fight, not drifting off in thought.

We walked forward for another couple of minutes when a growl sounded somewhere ahead.

Our first monster in this dungeon.

I got ready, but I still couldn’t see it—beyond fifteen meters, the torches didn’t reach.

There were three or four torches lit ahead of us. As we moved forward, the next one would flare to life, then another, and another—like the torches reacted to the presence of people.

So only a stretch of about twenty meters around us was lit at any given time; everything beyond that was swallowed by darkness.

When I moved a little farther ahead, another torch flared to life—and I saw it.

An ugly face. Greenish skin. A small body… actually, no, taller than I’d expected.

A goblin was standing in front of me.

He was holding a club—well, calling it a “club” was generous. It was just a chunk of wood, a broken stick.

He growled at me, a short rough sound, then rushed forward to attack.

I reacted instantly—one quick slash, and I split his head in half.

The goblin vanished in a burst of glowing particles, leaving behind a small magic stone that dropped onto the ground.

[Dungeon Monster Defeated: Goblin (Lv. 3)]
[Gained: +15 EXP]

“Seriously? Only level three?” I muttered, staring at the system window.

Well yeah, he was pretty slow. Way slower than low-level rabbits.

But he was taller than I’d expected—about a meter and a half, only a head shorter than me.

All right, that was the only surprising part.

I’d just assumed goblins would be much smaller.

At first, I’d even thought it might be a hobgoblin, but judging by the system message, it had been a regular goblin.

“Whoa, you handle a sword better than I thought,” Soren said.

“Well, see, guys? I told you he was a solid swordsman,” Damon added.

--

[Dungeon Monsters Defeated: Goblins (Lv. 3–20)×65]
[Gained: +3,215 EXP]

We kept moving forward, but we only met goblins along the way.

Sure, their levels were a bit higher, but even then—none above twenty.

After about two hours, we stopped in front of a massive door.

“Well, here we are. First boss of the dungeon,” Damon said.

“Let’s rest a bit before we go in,” he added.

“Yeah, let’s grab a bite,” Soren said.

“Agreed,” Roder nodded. “I barely ate since morning. After breakfast my stomach’s completely empty.”

“Yeah, I’m a little hungry too,” I admitted.

We sat down to rest.

I was about to open my bag and pull out some dried meat and bread.

“Hey, don’t bother opening your bag. I’m treating you today,” Damon said, handing me something wrapped in paper.

“What’s this?” I asked.

“Meat sandwich. Really good stuff. Not dry jerky, real fresh meat, cooked this morning, and fresh bread too,” Damon answered with a grin.

It was pretty big. When I unwrapped it, the smell of fresh bread and grilled meat hit me all at once.

It would’ve been rude to refuse—and honestly, it smelled really good.

Looked like all three of them had the same big sandwich—each of them was holding one just like mine.

We started eating.

Yeah… it was good. Really good.

While I ate, my thoughts went back over everything that had happened in the last two hours.

Honestly, I was a little disappointed.

Most of the goblins, Soren and I had taken down together. Roder and Damon barely got involved.

Well, Damon didn’t use any magic at all.

And that was what disappointed me the most.

I’d really wanted to see how magic looked in this world.

Maybe he knew Fireball?

Or Ice spells?

Lightning? Earth magic? I had no idea.

I just wanted to see it with my own eyes.

Well, I figured once we went into the Boss Room, he’d have to use magic.

Yeah… I really hoped he would.

I genuinely wanted to see what magic looked like in this world.

We finished eating, and all three of them were already ready to fight the Dungeon Boss.

I stood up too—but suddenly felt a little dizzy.

“You okay?” Damon asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I answered.

But that was a lie.

I didn’t feel fine at all.

My stomach started to hurt.

Maybe there was something wrong with the sandwich?

Maybe the meat had gone bad?

Yeah, that was probably it.

Although… it had tasted really good.

No, even tasty meat can be spoiled.

Back on Earth, that had happened to me a couple of times.

After snacks like that, I spent a couple of days… well, way too much time in the bathroom.

To put it mildly.

Damn, at least this world has Health Potions.

Good thing I’d taken a few with me in advance.

I couldn’t very well create a potion here—everyone was right next to me.

I pulled a Health Potion out of my pocket.

I uncorked it and went to drink—

Ah!

I dropped the potion.

The vial hit the ground and shattered, liquid spilling everywhere.

My hand… was covered in blood.

I didn’t grasp what had happened at first.

Then I saw it—Soren’s sword.

It was bloody.

With my blood.

“Sorry, Alisar. You just got unlucky,” Soren said.

He… had just attacked me.

“W-What? Why?..” I breathed.

“We can’t let you heal yourself,” Damon said calmly. “It’d be a lot harder to kill you if you did.”

“Why are you doing this?.. Is it money you want? I can give you money!”

There was no need to kill me… just to take my money!

As I talked, I grabbed my right arm with my left.

The wound…

Blood was pouring out fast.

My arm burned like it was on fire from the inside.

I needed… I needed to drink a Health Potion. Fast.

“Money? No. This isn’t about money,” Damon said. “Though… after we kill you, we’ll take your money, your sword, everything valuable you’ve got.”

“But the main reason is… you messed with the wrong person.”

“What?.. Who did I mess with?..” I asked, feeling a cold chill run over my skin.

I started desperately trying to remember.

As far as I could recall… I hadn’t wronged anyone in this world.

I hadn’t done anything bad to anyone.

“Oh, finally! Everything ready?” I heard a voice say.

Someone stepped out of the corridor we’d come from.

A man in a hood.

At first I thought it was black, but no—it was a dirty, faded brown.

He came closer and pulled the hood back.

“Yeah, yeah, everything’s ready. He’s about to pay for offending my big brother,” Damon said, smiling.

“Good. I never doubted you, little brother,” the newcomer replied.

Damn…

It was the guy from yesterday.