欧洲无人区天空码头IV

He had peeked at the room Aleesia came from, but nothing stood out, besides the fact it had no connecting room besides his.

As he got back to his side, he was surprised by the passage carving itself, despite it being slow.

She was still lying on the floor, passed out.

I could kill her.

He approached her, her expression was at rest, her chest slowly moving up and down as she breathed.

All it would take was the spear he had, or the dagger.

A clean thrust right in her heart, or maybe cutting her throat open.

It wouldn\'t be the first time he killed someone, he thought.

He had done worse in Dustriver.

Her eyes opened to Mori staring at her, her expression instantly went toward scared.

She took a moment to realize where she was, and to remember what had happened, before smiling.

"Ah, sorry, I must\'ve been tired..." she said.

"All good."

"What was I saying..."

"That the cat sent you to me," he said.

"Ah yes. That cat... I did explain that just giving me a bow would allow me to repay the kindle I would owe. It didn\'t care at all. And I had no food, so of course I had to get water and food, and days went by..."

Mori sighed.

"You\'re an idiot. You could\'ve bought a stick, or that rope with a rock attached, then you wouldn\'t be in this situation."

"I told you, my strength is low-"

Mori joined his hands together and closed his eyes while exhaling loudly.

"Listen."

He then looked at her. She was a true beauty, with all the classic features.

She had that hourglass shape truly mastered, and the fact she was tall only helped her out. Her breasts were big, yet not too much.

Her face had that elvish genetic. She truly had no imperfections, her skin or facial composition were almost perfect.

"You don\'t look like a fighter. Add to that the fact that you\'re level 2, I understand that. However, how stupid can you be when you have a choice between a fish and a fishing rod, and you take the fish?"

She looked down, her cheeks rosy as she embarrassingly played with her hair.

"You sound like my father," she muttered.

"What?"

"Nothing."

She helped herself up. As he looked closer, she seemed better now than she was hours ago.

Her face looked brighter, at least.

"I\'ve trained with a bow, my father allowed it. It was always target practice, he\'d never let me get close to any sort of danger."

"Wouldn\'t you need to level up eventually, to be less in danger?" asked Mori.

"Yeah. When I would be old enough, he said we\'d start working on my level. He\'d arrange for me to be escorted by royal guards through the early levels of a dungeon, and that for now, I should focus on court etiquette, that sort of thing."

"So you\'re a princess."

"Yeah, not an important one, however, don\'t get your hopes up..."

"Wait, what did you mean, when you would be old enough?" asked Mori.

"Ah, I\'m only 25. He said we\'d wait a couple of decades."

Right. Elves.

"And one other thing, it\'s been on my mind. If you\'re an elf, you shouldn\'t be on the south continent, how did you get here?" he asked.

She looked away, seemingly embarassed again.

"I ran away," she said.

"All the way to the demon territories?" asked Mori.

"What? No. I don\'t think my butt could handle a carriage ride that long."

"You ran away in a carriage?" said Mori, raising his eyebrows.

"How else? In any case, my driver was supposed to be taking me to a neighboring country\'s court. He said he knew a shortcut through the whispering forest. I somehow fell asleep and woke up here."

"The whispering forest?"

"Yeah. Its entry is forbidden, people who enter it disappear forever. My driver said he knew a way to avoid its danger, he said he went through it all the time... Something must\'ve happened."

\'Something must\'ve happened\'? Someone clearly wanted to get rid of you.

"So the Unkindled kidnaps people from other places than the mountain range. Now it makes sense."

Mori turned around, the passageway was near completion, they could soon get to the next room.

Mori opened his [Dungeon] tab, Aleesia appeared in the recently met list.

"I\'ll add you to my friend list, if you don\'t mind."

"I\'ll do the same. We should probably help each other," replied Aleesia.

He quickly added her, the whole process pretty simple.

"Here, take this," said Mori, handing her his dagger.

She awkwardly took it, holding it as if it was disgusting.

Mori was about to turn away, but quickly went back to her.

"You... know how to use it, right?" he asked.

"Yes... of course," she said.

She brandished it, slashing the air left and right with little force.

You sent me someone extremely useless, Unkindled.

Mori was no weapon expert, yet common sense was enough to see everything she did wrong.

"Okay, first, hold it right," said Mori.

He took her hand and tightened it around the dagger, forcing her to hold it the right way.

"See? That\'s where your hand should be, and it shouldn\'t be all soft, use whatever muscles you have."

He let go, watching her handle it.

"Like this?"

"What? Not even remotely? Are you doing this on purpose?"

Aleesia\'s face when straight into a pout as she stomped her feet on the ground.

Mori\'s expression remained the same as he sustained her gaze.

I feel sorry for her father, now.

"Alright, I\'m done with you. You\'re on your own."

"What! Wait! Okay, okay I\'ll try again."

She did her best, biting her lips as she concentrated on holding the dagger \'right\'.

It was far from right, and she concentrated way too much for such a simple task, however it was already better.

"Good, seems you\'re not a total lost cause."

"That means you won\'t leave me behind, right?"

"For now. Let\'s just get to the second room.

Mori started walking toward the freshly created passageway.

He could hear her steps quickly accelerated as she caught up to him, walking beside him.

"Why are you taking torches?" she asked, as Mori took one.

"Long story."

"Huhuh."

After walking for not that long, they eventually reached the next room.

Peeking inside from the passageway, Mori could tell it was only one skeleton.

"Alright. You get it."

Aleesia quickly turned toward him.

"What? I can\'t. You should be the one..."

"You want to take the fish? Again?"

"Your metaphor is weird..." she muttered, as she entered the room.

She pointed the dagger toward the skeleton, who noticed her quickly.

As it approached, her stance totally broke.

She took several steps back, until she reached Mori.

"Alright, maybe you should-"

Mori pushed her back inside the room, the skeleton was within reach and jumped forward, trying to grab her.

She jumped sideways while shrieking.

"Why would you do that?!" she yelled.

Mori shook his head in disbelief.

She kept running circles around the room, trying to keep the most distance between the skeleton and herself.

"You\'ll need to attack it, eventually," said Mori.

Despite the waste of time, he was impressed.

She wasn\'t too bad at running, and her movements were swift and graceful. It didn\'t look like she wasted energy stomping her way around; it looked as if she floated on the floor.

As if she glided on the floor with every step she took.

Oh. Finally?

Her grasp on the dagger\'s handle tightened, she was about to try and attack.

She took a step forward, quickly advancing within the skeleton\'s reach, and slashed.

Mori\'s blood was boiling. He tried to find ways to calm down, yet nothing really could.

"Did you close your eyes. Right there? Did I see it right?"

Aleesia looked at Mori for a split second, biting her lips while running backward again.

She opened her mouth, as if to answer, but quickly changed her mind, and concentrated on the enemy before her.

She was getting nowhere. No wonder it took her hours to clear her [0-1-S] room, before it connected to Mori\'s.

As she kept running around the room, she had walked in front of Mori, the skeleton in her footsteps.

As it passed Mori, it suddenly turned its head and stopped moving, as it realized it had another target within reach.

For a very short moment, it stood there looking at Mori.

Like a flash, Mori saw light reflecting on the dagger\'s blade as it flew toward the Skeleton\'s head.

It easily impaled it, chunks of bones crumbling to the floor as the skeleton slowly fell to its knees. The dagger was clean through.

It disappeared, with only kindle appearing on the floor, no items.

Breathing deeply, Aleesia approached, taking the kindle on the ground, while looking at Mori with a wide smile.

"See, I can do it," she said brightly.

Mori did short nods, his eyes closed.

When he opened them again, his neutral expression gave little to how he felt. His voice, however, betrayed his annoyance.

"Did I see you. Just now. Throw your only weapon?"

Aleesia\'s smile slowly faded.