Chapter 15: Another World

Chapter 15: Another World

„Kayla, what’s that? A tent for you alone? Did you get into a fight with Miko? “Alex asked, looking seriously concerned.

“We just want to rebuild that thing you call a private sphere… you know, giving each other some space.”

“Sounds like you had a fight.”

"Shut up." I was sure she was teasing me because ever since we played truth or dare that night and I sort of confirmed that I was in love with Miko, she was actively looking for opportunities to say something about our non-existent love life.

While our tents would easily fit four camping beds, Eliza explained to us when she handed over our gear that we wouldn't want to see or talk to anyone at some point, so she advised us not to sleep together.

After building up the camp, I went on a small tour through it with Nada since she was drawing out a plan for everyone to navigate through it. The most important places were the toilet and the shower, both powered by mana, so we didn't need a water tank.

“It’s finished,” Nada announced and put away the plan into her bag while taking an item for creating a magic veil out of it. We planned to use a veil instead of placing someone at the border of the park where our camp was located.

There are hardly any people who would enter the restricted area, as this violation brings serious sanctions. Still, we have identified Luna's presence as a threat because her one million followers, I repeat, one million followers on social media, most likely include some people who do not obey these laws.

“There you are,” Krystoff said after walking at us. “Luna wants to speak about the mission in the meeting room.”

Calling the big tent with the table in its center a room was a bit odd, but that was also the name we had chosen for the overview map.

Some moments later, the whole team was sitting around said table, waiting for Luna to start her small presentation. She even brought a small projector, which she connected with her notebook.

"I'm ready. If you have any questions, just ask them right away," said Luna as she opened a slideshow.

"You can see the formation of the small groups on the dias. The first team I want to declare is the one led by Wace. Together with Miko and Kayla, he will act as our offensive front. Both Wace and Miko are excellent close-combat fighters. At first, I wanted to put Kayla on a team farther away from the action, but I can't have her separated from Miko." She laughed and moved on to the next slide.

“The next team consists of Alex and Krystoff, both described themselves as allrounders to me, and Alex definitely needs a personal bodyguard as she explores the dungeon. Not that I plan to send the smaller teams alone into the dungeon. If possible, we will go all together as much as possible.”

I definitely felt safe in my team. Miko is strong, and she herself said that Wace is even stronger than her, which is very unusual for someone as proud as Miko.

Krystoff, on the other hand, looked a bit stressed as he was once again tasked with protecting someone with less experience. I could understand his fear of failing again. I can't imagine being in his position.

"Now, for the last team, as you might have guessed, it's Nada and me. I am a ranged fighter, and Nada is not a fighter at all. She's the one who unfortunately has to stay in camp most of the time, but if we go together, I'll protect her while watching your backs.

For someone without any experience, the teams sounded reasonable, but I still had no sense of the danger we would walk into. I felt more excited to enter this dungeon, although fear would probably have been more appropriate.

“So… you guys want to take a look?” Luna asked, closing her notebook.

“Yes!” Alex said and jumped off her chair.

What were we talking about? Take a look at what?

“You don’t need to put on your gear.” Wace said, sighing, “I can protect you without it. Let's just get this short trip over with.”

"Such a gentleman," Miko said, also standing up to pat Wace on the back.

Before I had a chance to think about it, we were standing in front of the dungeon gate. Luna put her hand on the frame of the gate and supplied it with mana to deactivate the item that was used to lock the dungeon from our side. A frightening thought that the creatures from the other world could have entered ours at any time.

“Smart to enter the dungeon now. The sun is already setting, so we are protected by the dark.” Nada said more to herself, but everyone was close enough to hear her. Krystoff giggled, and Luna smiled at Nada. “Just wait for it.”

"Let's go, but walk slowly. You may feel dizzy in the first few moments, so try to keep a firm stance," Wace explained before he disappeared into the shimmering light that filled out the gate.

Miko and I were next. I felt a touch on my outer thigh. It was Miko who offered me her hand... Did I look that nervous? Or was it she who needed support? Whatever it was, I accepted her invitation. A few moments later, we stepped into a whole new world.

At first glance, it did look as same as ours, but I was amazed by the huge green valley with some mountains and forests in the distance. Strange if I think about that, just a few seconds ago, we were still standing in a park in a small city.

Wait, why was it so bright? I couldn't close my mouth when suddenly someone ran right into me. It was Nada, who seemed even more shocked than I was.

“Yes, of course, another world got another time zone!” she facepalmed herself, realizing how narrow-minded she was.

Wait, wait, wait… yes, it was bright, but there was no sun. The sky was free of any clouds, and it shone in a beautiful blue, but I couldn’t spot the light source.

“There are dungeons with a sun, but this one functions without one,” Krystoff explained, guessing why I was so shocked.

“I guess you guys didn’t read the old report yet?” Luna said, “It's fine. Just be sure to do that before the mission starts tomorrow.”

“Do you want to see the map?” Alex asked, holding a tablet in her hand. Nada and I both looked at it while Krystoff tried to explain the dungeon in a few words.

"The dungeon is on the bigger side. The cave with the second gate is about twenty kilometers from here. If you boost your running speed with magic, it will take you about thirty minutes to reach it. If we were to walk at a moderate pace, it would take us about four hours."

Walking for four hours sounded terrible. Running was even worse. Before I ever used magic to speed myself up, I thought it would be as relaxing as driving a car... but I still felt my muscles, and using mana that way requires a lot of focus.

"Do you want to explore a bit, or are you satisfied with standing around at the entrance?" Wace sounded a little annoyed. For him, walking around in a dungeon was surely nothing to get excited about anymore.

"I want to check out a place," Luna said, coming over to us and pointing to the map. "It's a lake. I'd really like to catch some fish from it. I swear, dungeon monsters taste amazing."

“You ate dungeon monsters before?” Nada asked, sounding a bit disgusted.

“Of course, I was in a regular dungeon guild before I joined my current one. Or did you think they made some random influencer to the leader of this mission?”

“I wouldn’t call you a random influencer.”

“That’s not the point. However, let’s get moving.” Luna sighed but couldn’t hold back a small giggle.

The atmosphere was very relaxed, almost too relaxed. I wasn't going to say anything to ruin the mood, but I looked around a lot until I actually spotted something that piqued my interest.

“Guys, are these what I think they are?” I pointed in the direction of a bunch of blue balls bouncing around.

“Oh, slimes,” Krystoff confirmed my assumption.

"Delicious, too," Luna added and started laughing. All of us were looking at her in disbelief… “Just a joke, guys.”

“Do you want to touch one?” Miko asked, looking at me with a big smile.

“Aren’t they dangerous?”

"No… Only if you identify as grass, then it is possible that they will try to gobble you up." Alex explained.

As we were talking about the slimes, one of them started flying in our direction… flying? I started looking at the others in confusion until I noticed Wace moving around his hand. He used some kind of magic.

“For a moment, I thought they could fly.” I let out a nervous laugh.

“Take off your gloves for the full experience,” Wace said, showing me a charming smile. Was my heart beating faster when I looked at him? I also started feeling a bit hot.

“Stop staring at him. It’s dangerous,” Miko whispered to me.

“I’m sorry.” I don’t know why I apologized.

“Not like it bothers me that much, but would you please take that slime now?” Wace asked.

“Yes, yes, of course.” I quickly took off my gloves and slowly approached the slime that was floating in the air. Up close, it looked like a giant blue jello. I expected it to feel just like that, and that's exactly how it was.

“I end the spell now. Don’t drop your new friend.”

Although the slime had neither eyes nor a mouth, it looked kind of cute. I held him in my arms like a baby. It was moving a little, leaning against my chest... I hoped that it wasn't afraid of me.

I ended up taking the slime with me, and it was kind of relaxing holding him in my arms while looking around the huge green of the valley.

By the way, we couldn’t see the gate anymore. I really hoped the others still knew where we had to go. I did not want to get lost on my first trip into a dungeon.

"The lake should be around here somewhere," said Luna and started jogging a little ahead. She disappeared from our view because she passed a small hill, and before we could do the same, she came running back, waving her arms.

"Back to the gate, now!" she ordered when she arrived at us.

"What's wrong?" asked Miko with a serious expression.

“A village, they’ve built a village at the lake.” Luna seemed shocked. “This is a twenty-minute walk from the gate… a goblin village.”

"Shall I destroy it?" Wace asked as if it were an easy task to do so.

“No, not yet,” Luna answered as we started walking back to the gate.

“Is it that strange that they’ve built a village?” I asked, trying to hold the tempo of Miko, who was almost running at that point.

"I don't know. I personally have never entered a dungeon that hasn't been cleared for as long as this one.... normally the monsters wouldn't even have time to think about something like that," Luna explained.

“I’m sorry,” Krystoff said.

"Don't act like it's your fault. You're not that important," replied Wace to this apology. A bit harsh, to be honest, but it was right that Krystoff didn't need to badmouth himself. If anyone was going to be blamed for the mess his guild was going through, it was everyone involved, not one individual.

◆◆◆

Back in our camp, we immediately started another meeting right in front of the gate. Even our more experienced teammates looked stressed out, maybe even more than the rest of us, since we could not really grasp what was happening.

“How did it look?” Wace asked in a cold tone.

“Like a fisher village, I could not spot any watchtowers or guards in general. It seemed peaceful.”

I was impressed that she was able to discern so much in that short moment.

Wace sighed. “Was that the reason why I should not destroy it? Because it looked peaceful?”

“No, you should not destroy it because our mission is it to explore and research that dungeon, not to kill every living creature in sight.”

“These are monsters. As mages, we are supposed to kill them.”

“Don’t worry. The moment they show any aggression, you are free to do whatever you want with them.”

"Stop talking like I'm a murderous madman. I admit I'm a little impatient and thought I could speed things up by wiping out the village."

“What’s the plan now?” Miko asked, interrupting the small argument between Luna and Wace.

"I want to send Team Wace and Team Krystoff out tomorrow to check the cave with the second gate. Nada and I will stay here because I want to get more information about this whole monster village thing."

“Fine.” And with that, Miko walked away, disappearing into her tent.

Nada looked at me as if to ask what was going on without speaking, but I just shrugged my shoulders.... I had no idea what was happening right now.

"Okay, if the team leaders have more questions about tomorrow, we can continue talking in the meeting room. The others, please read the old report about the dungeon so you can learn about the nature and creatures inside. You are dismissed."

Obviously, I was following Miko the moment Luna was finished speaking. I stopped in front of her tent… “Everything’s alright?” I asked.

“Come inside.” She answered, and so I did.

“You are good? Why did you leave?”

"Because I knew everything I wanted to know? That's just the way I work. I don't want to get more involved than I have to."

She sounded calm, and I understood her very well. Miko was planning to follow instructions. She was not in the position to decide how we would act in this mission, and so she was satisfied with the description of tomorrow's task to investigate this cave.

LUNA

“Wace… please be honest. Did you ever see something like that before?”

“Luna, please think about who you are asking. Of course, I saw something like that before.”

I’ve always had problems dealing with these overpowered, almost otherworldly entities like Wace. I never understood why someone like him was content to be a co-leader or, in the case of this mission, to work under someone like me.

“It’s not like I don’t feel confident leading that mission, but I would like to hear your opinion… what should we do with that village?” I knew how stupid this sounded. I threw away my credibility by using the word but.

"Listen, I completely understand that you want to study the behavior of these goblins. But in the end, after we find and destroy the dungeon core, they will perish anyway. No matter what we do, these creatures will die. Maybe it's better to kill them before they can possibly put an arrow between your beautiful eyes. I would definitely mourn your death."

“Thank you. I appreciate that… No, for real thanks. You helped me decide what to do.”

“You are very welcome.” He bowed before me and walked out of the tent. I cleared the table and left it as well. It was almost midnight, damn this day did not go quite as I had imagined, but fortunately, we had everything under control.

Before I went to sleep, I wanted to visit the small kiosk near the park. I put my hair in a messy bun and put on a gray hoodie. The last thing I wanted right now was to be recognized by anyone. Of course, I liked the attention I got from my work, but for the next few weeks, I was Luna the witch, not the social media personality.

I still wasn’t sure how or what to film for the vlogs I was supposed to do. Before coming here, I had the feeling we could do some funny challenges with the others or cook together, but the moment I laid eyes on these goblins, I realized the seriousness of the situation. Maybe I would just ditch all the documentation stuff.

The cashier in the kiosk just eyed me as I entered the store. I answered that with an awkward smile. I grabbed two cans of beer from the fridge and went to the register, where I added a blueberry-flavored vape. Don't forget kids, alcohol, and smoking are very unhealthy. But I, as an almost thirty-year-old woman, need something like that sometimes.

After paying, I stashed everything in the kangaroo pocket of my hoodie and headed back to the camp. Inside the veil, I took out the vape and took a deep puff of the disgustingly sweet stuff. The beer would have to wait until I was in more privacy.

Tomorrow would mark the official start of this mission. And I hoped that the goblin village would have been the last surprise.