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An hour or two later, Khrx woke up from his quick nap he decided to take when everyone except Mr. Johnson logged out. The temporary campsite was bustling, and the men were packing up their tents and bags. Khrx rubbed his eyes as the men held torches to the campfire, lighting them up. What Khrx had thought was a beam of moonlight shining on his face earlier was actually the light from a glowing stone hovering in the air. According to Mr. Johnson, it had special properties that repelled wild beasts.
Randy jumped and snatched the stone, pressing on it to disable its glow, and stored it into his bag. “We ready?” he asked, looking around. The only evidence of them being there was the campfire, which Randy extinguished by kicking dirt over it.
“What about him?” Khrx asked, pointing at the horse.
“It can come with us,” Mr. Johnson said. “We’ll leave it near the entrance so it’s safe from harm. You don’t have to worry about it.”
Khrx nodded and the group set off. Randy turned to one of the bulkier men. “What’d your wife say, Vinny?”
“The usual,” Vinny said with a shrug. “She called me a lazy good-for-nothing man-child.” He stepped ahead of the group and led the way to the dungeon’s entrance—the hole in the ground. “Let’s beat up some snakes. I need to vent.”
Mr. Johnson patted Khrx’s shoulder. “Vinny may look and talk like that, but he’s actually a really nice person.”
“What do you mean may look like that?” Vinny asked with a snort. He glared at Mr. Johnson before jumping feet first into the hole. The rest of the men followed until only Khrx, Mr. Johnson, and the horse were still outside.
“This noble horse lives his life aboveground,” the horse said. “This noble horse refuses to imitate worms.” It took a step back, swallowing while staring at the hole. Khrx ran up to it, grabbed its leg, and pulled it towards the hole. “Stop! Unhand this noble! Don’t you dare—you dared!?” The horse screamed as it tumbled down the entrance with Khrx.
The ground was soft, covered by layers upon layers of hay. Khrx dug his way out of the pile and shook his head, forcing the straws out of his hair. He led the unharmed horse forward to the place where the five men were standing with smiles on their faces.
“How was it? Exciting?” Randy asked. “The guild put the hay there earlier. If we used something obvious like ropes, other people might find out about the dungeon.”
Khrx wasn’t sure how to respond, so he tilted his head to the side instead.
“What? Not going to say anything?” Randy asked.
“It’s because your face is intimidating,” Vinny said, pulling Randy aside. “Stop scaring him.”
“I don’t want to hear that from you, buttface,” Randy muttered.
There was a thumping sound, and Mr. Johnson appeared behind the group shortly after. “Everyone’s alright?” Mr. Johnson asked, taking in his surroundings. The six men were all holding torches that somehow didn’t set the hay ablaze. “Leave the horse here. Once we proceed, it’ll start to get dangerous.”
“You hear that?” Khrx asked the horse.
“This noble isn’t deaf. This noble will wait right here for you,” the horse said as it walked up to the pile of hay, dropped to its stomach, and hid inside the pile. “This noble isn’t scared! This, this noble is just cold. Yes. Very cold.”
Khrx scratched his nose. Why did he always attract all the weirdos? It must be his charm. An abnormal amount of charm attracted abnormal people.
“Kay, stay behind us, but don’t stand too far away,” Mr. Johnson said. “We won’t let any snakes get past, so you don’t have to worry about a thing.”
Khrx nodded. He was here to eat the meat noodles. If someone wanted to kill them for him, then he obviously wouldn’t turn down the offer. This was how he should’ve been treated once he woke up. People should’ve been throwing offerings at him, begging him for good luck. Instead, he had his tail blown off and nearly lost his poor little life. Thinking back on that time, Khrx decided he needed to find an anti-explosion skill after retrieving Fufu.
The group of six men worked well together, advancing in a triangular formation. Vinny stood at the very front while Randy and another lanky fellow stood behind him. Mr. Johnson acted as an overseer with two men protecting his sides. None of them had any weapons, only equipped with the torches in their hands. Around the time when Khrx was wondering how they were going to fight without fangs, claws, scales, tails, horns, tentacles, or weapons, a group of three snakes slithered out of the darkness, lunging towards Vinny.
Vinny shouted, “Stoneskin!” A gray light covered his body, and he charged forward, reaching for one of the snakes. The three snakes bit his arm, but their fangs broke on his skin. He grabbed one of the snakes’ heads and gave it a squeeze while waving his torch at the other two snakes. Randy and the lanky fellow leapt forward, stomping on the snakes’ heads and lowering the torches to their bodies. A few moments later, all three snakes were dead.
“What do you think?” Mr. Johnson asked Khrx.
“Why don’t those two use weapons? He used a sword to cut the meat from before,” Khrx said, pointing at Randy and the lanky fellow. “And how come Vinny doesn’t use a shield?”
Mr. Johnson smiled. “There’s a rumor going around about item drops and weapons, have you heard about it? If you clear a dungeon without using weapons, an item might appear at the end.” He shrugged. “It’s just a rumor, but it’s not like we need weapons to clear out this dungeon as long as we don’t encounter the wandering boss. Our luck’s too low to run into it though.”
Khrx nodded, mentally preparing himself for the wandering boss encounter. It was bound to happen, given his luck. “Do all of you know how to cast spells?” He noticed mana fluctuating around the two men and Mr. Johnson during the fight. If things went south, they might’ve interfered.
“Of course,” Mr. Johnson said, raising an eyebrow. “Anyone with at least three intelligence and five spirit can learn any basic spell. Do you want me to teach you some?”
Khrx’s eye twitched. “No.” One day, he’d get Theda to pull AI-Helper out of whatever hole it was hiding in. Then he’d eat its face like he ate Boba’s. He didn’t even want to look at his status screen anymore because of how far his intelligence had fallen. At least he could still cast spells in reality. That was all that mattered.