Chapter 71

 

Site of the Goblin Invasion; Gnome Warren Entrance

By now it’s a half a day later of careful traveling with occasional, minor skirmishes…

The dwarves are still with us. I don’t think they want us to go. Having a mage on your team is lucky, even if I’m not a dwarf.

I fear we are trapped in the ruins of the gnome warrens. We’ve gotten feverishly worried about it now searching everywhere we could. We do think that we won’t run out of air though, but only because the whole warren system is laced with special moss plants that eat carbon dioxide and convert it to oxygen. There are also small air tubes that lead to the surface that are so small only rats can fit in them, though we don’t have the exact locations of each since the gnomes hadn’t shared that with us. I think they’d only shared that much information with us so we didn’t start a panic, since it’s not easy for humans to live underground.

It’s also horrifically amazing how the darkness of the warrens make it so hard to move around even though we’d spent several weeks here already. That plus, the cave-ins had changed some of the other tunnel layouts. It felt confusing even going thirty feet from where we’d used to be. Wondering if any second a pack of goblins would come around a corner and being ready for them, and all that together made our progressive much slower than we’d anticipated.

Every shadow seemed magnified and now I understood why not just kids are afraid of the dark.

But we could still run out of food and water at the same time since we didn’t know we were going on an expedition when we got up this morning.

Our previous knowledge of learning how to process what remains of the moss plants in the tunnel system into food is also incomplete. The gnomes didn’t find a lot of humans interested in learning that process either.

Even though I have this fear I reassure the other two that we’ll all be OK in the end.

“It’s OK, I don’t have to live in fear anymore now that I’ve decided to be honest with my feelings,” Asakura said. She’s holding my hand, while my other hand is holding the light out. I’ve got my weapons ready to go hanging from my belt.

She gives me another squeeze of encouragement while holding my hand. When she can it seems she keeps trying to do this.

Wow I can’t believe this is real! Finally good things are happening in my life!

Even if we have troubles after this I feel happy being able to be with someone gorgeous like Asakura!

But I’m conflicted because instinctively I want to hold a weapon in one hand, but my choices are two out of three on holding the light, the weapon, and her hand. Naturally I’d want to hold her hand more than the other two options.

We probably won’t run into goblins for a bit right? I have to seize this opportunity and be a man.

“Thanks.”

“You two sure like to show off how wonderful your lives together have gotten all the sudden don’t you,” Rina said dourly, tagging along closely. Is that really Rina speaking? She really sounds grumpy today. Considering we’re being invaded, it’s probably to be expected. Grumpy is better than despair though I think to myself.

I also realize I’m becoming desensitized to violence. A month ago if this event had happened we’d all be freaking out. Somehow we’re calmer than we should be, since we’re getting used to how violent this world is.

“What? I’m just being honest. I was like…afraid you know. There was the fear of lack of birth control, how to live, where will we get food, and so many things I was worried about. I’m sure it will work out though. And you are coming with us and part of our special team don’t worry,” Asakura said.

Birth control? Was she thinking about that?

I don’t dare ask while we’re with others. She squeezes my hand and my heart beat jumps a bit.

“I-I guess you’re right,” Rina said. Her face turns red.

Rina didn’t look as annoyed now as she used to be. Was it because of mentioning birth control and implications of sex? Or did she misunderstand the meaning of ‘special team’?

We are trying to calm down but even my fingers are all jittery. None of us say it aloud, but we are probably the only humans left alive from our ‘colony’ of humans brought from our world now. I hope that Rina and Asakura won’t realize that. If they do will they become dangerously depressed? Since the fighting began many hours ago we haven’t been able to find another human left alive.

We did only find a few half chewed on corpses that goblins had ambushed. But how had the goblins gotten in this part of the tunnels that we thought were sealed off from the other sections?

They seemed in a hurry. They’d ravaged the bodies and scavenged what they could quickly but ignored some of the parts that could be useful. Of course to think that way made me want to lose my lunch.

Asakura had to turn away and was crying…when we had to study the bodies. It couldn’t be helped. Everything we knew about the goblins or their motive would help us fight them. So we couldn’t miss a chance to see what they scavenged and what they left behind.

I try to get that thought out of my mind but it’s not easy to do. It also gives me terrible goose bumps when I remember it.

The dwarves instead of going up to find a way to leave the tunnel system have gone deep and are looking for tunnels that lead downward farther into darkness. I find it strange but they don’t seem panicked at all. In fact they seem more reassured.

They know something but there are communication problems.

They also do seem to have a for sure method to how they explore however. They don’t go around corners blindly. They have spotters, and they keep a couple dwarves with snipers ready. It’s a type of system ready to mob anything that comes against them. Not to mention, how they always seem to know where they are going.

Do they have a map of this place or something?

They also seem to be taking hand signals from the leader dwarf with all the fine shiny white hair and beard.

I’m impressed with how they approach it.

Does the feeling of being underground and surrounded by earth have some kind of soothing effect on them, I wonder.

I would have thought they would be looking for a way up. But instead they go deeper? Is it their innate nature to do that? Is it a type of predator escape behavior? This is definitely how a rabbit or other small mammals might evade foxes or wolves, but I hadn’t expected to see it in demi-humans.

Is it even appropriate to call them demi-humans? That’s the terminology in a game but this isn’t a game it’s freaking real life! We could die here and there is seriousness here. There’s also no reset button in real life and death scenarios.

Maybe I shouldn’t call them demi-humans just because of that, I think as we move down the corridors.

We have to help the dwarves figure out what they are looking for, but it’s not easy. They have circled several times. One of them has an old map, but it’s not updated since the cave-in of course. We ended up at one point at the same point we’d started in. The dwarves are good at mapping but just didn’t know the full extent of the gnome warrens.

It looks like its been a long time since they’d come close to this area. It also seems when they visit they usually stay at the entrance. So they don’t seem to be as confident on these deeper areas. It’s not like every tunnel had the gnomish ‘street signs’ either.

They have reduced their speed only slightly to help us stay caught up. Sometimes they have to discuss their route at tunnel crossing points. Their discussion is at times heated, thus we know they aren’t happy.

“That’s not good right?” Asakura asks me, pointing to them as we both watched quietly. “Shouldn’t they have more agreement on the matter and less division?”

“Nope it’s not good,” Rina finished for me.

“They don’t really know where we’re going Shun,” Asakura warned me. “What should we do?” she added.

It’s surprising to me that even though she’s just a bit older than I am she still values my intelligence and opinion. It’s a signal things are real I think. In another situation it would be hard for someone to listen to a younger person. Although it is true also that she is a very young teacher.

But it raised another question. Did the box make me smarter? Or is it just all the extra life experiences from both reality and dreams that are giving me an advantage?

“We should still stick with them. It’s our best chance, and this environment is pretty alien to us still,” I countered.

“Got it,” she answered back.

“Do I get to have a say in the matter?” Rina asked.

“Depends do you have anything to contribute?” I asked.

She stays silent. So was Rina testing us to see if we’d listen to her input? Did I pass?

I thought Asakura was right, but I didn’t really count on the consequences of that, until later.

We found two of the heavily wounded dwarves from earlier. These must be the two out of the three that had retreated before the others when they’d got wounded. I’d almost forgotten about them. They didn’t look like they were in any shape to move.

I used half of my mana to stabilize them with heal skill power. It took a long time. Thanks to the shared mana pool skill upgrades I can cast a ton of heal spells in one sitting now, even though they drain a lot out of me.

First I’d had to sort of feel out what their wounds and internal organs felt like. This wasn’t something I’d had to do to this level yet and the injuries were graver than what I’d experienced earlier. This step seemed to help heals be more effective and so I’d been focusing in on it lately. Also I was still feeling out if dwarves were much different than humans. There were parts that were torn like several broken ribs, and some important tissue, and shoulder ligaments. I had to like weave out little threads of a needle tipped heal on these and just like picture in my mind using the heal tip sewing them up like needle and thread. Of course that meant picturing the heal spell like a scalpel I was holding in my hand and applying to the wounds directly.

These sensitive and key body parts I couldn’t rush very well either, since the critical organs were important. There was also things like a tendon in the shoulder, if not done right would make his arm totally useless.

Asakura stays close by to assist in case I need anything. The moral support feels cool.

Using the heal as a needle and applying the tip to different parts I was trying to seal together also seemed like it was more of an upgrade. But I couldn’t explain why. It was like it just seemed to carry the mana efficiency better, and overall work better though it was slower. The ribs and bones were the slowest. Not only did I have to hold things in place with help from two assistant dwarves, I learned that healing a bone takes tons more energy and effort compared to skin, tissue, and torn muscles. The same concept I’d used to sew up their muscles together, took about three or four times on each rib.

Not even halfway through, I realized I was sweating like crazy from all the effort.

To think the dwarves would still be alive, after this much damage is really amazing. They are trying to not complain, and make much noise but I can feel their crying out in pain.

I wouldn’t have been able to take care of these two, if I’d wasted heal power earlier on the less critical dwarves, I noticed too. So I was glad I’d made good choices so far. It seemed like everything came back to budgeting power all over again.

It took about fifteen small heals after the heavy wound stabilization on each of them to get them stable, since they were close to death. They are back in fighting shape and look really good but still I can see cuts and scratches all over them. I think I’m making more progress on healing effectiveness but they aren’t perfect yet.

I still have yet to decide how soon I need to check on them, after this medical procedure is over. In theory they should be fine, but it makes me wonder are the patients that are fine in real life really just fine because someone checked on them? Maybe the ones that relapse are more neglected?

In spite of having learned so much there is still a long way to go.

“Wow you are getting really good at this!” Asakura is amazed. She avoids touching me and the wounded, since she’s aware of germs.

“I hope so. But it’s still a lot of work.”

We were fortunate no one had any torn major arteries, but some of their cuts were deep. I somehow managed to get them to stabilize when they’d looked all pale and near death before. This somehow gives them a lot of hope. They even have managed like a half smile and respect for us. They seem to understand we had an advantage in staying alive because of the heal system.

The good news is that with the shared mana pool, I still feel like I’ve got a lot of power left. I can feel the mana regeneration rate working inside me too. It’s reassuring even though I wish it was still faster.

Asakura notices it, “Shun, you’re getting stronger aren’t you?”

I chuckled but didn’t say anything.

She gives me a pat on the back.

The dwarves are suddenly anxious to protect us now as we’re moving with them. They keep the three of us in the middle of a box formation with them protecting us. The reaction to pulling the two separated dwarven scouts back from death was enormous. They probably won’t let us go even if we wanted to.

Still, before they saw progress on how I’d done on the two most heavily wounded dwarves they’d been watching us to see if we’d do harm. That scared me a little bit. But now they seem less tense, and even happy to have us with them.

For now that’s fine that we’re traveling with them.

I hope it wouldn’t cause trouble later.

Unfortunately no matter how hard we try to rid the remaining tunnel system of goblins they seem to keep finding their way in from somewhere, despite that we’re way far away from the main gnome warren complex above us.

But where are they coming in from?

The dwarves are sure they are getting in somehow. I can see them even gesture to each other animatedly to figure it out.

We still aren’t sure how the extra goblins got past the enemy lines after listening for some time. Even after most the tunnels were explored.

“This doesn’t make any sense,” Rina said scratching her head.

“Yeah, it’s weird huh?” Asakura echoed right after.

It also made the dwarves talk about the gate a lot. We only could tell because they kept pointing at it on their map and drawings of it. Since we didn’t understand Dwarvish we didn’t get it. But we’d seen they had some stick drawings about the gate mechanism. It also seems like they want us aware of what’s going on even though they can’t talk to us.

Were they talking about how the gate was broken originally though, or their escape plan to get back to the gate?

Language barriers are a pain in the ass.

We circled back and go through the tunnels again for another hour or two. This time they approach from a different direction on the same tunnels in case it was the point of view of the walls that was hindering us from noticing shallower and narrower openings in some of the more hidden rock formations.

Our nervousness and stress goes up even though we’re being courageous. This is because technically we went from nearly homeless to homeless and no place to rest. Not to mention the monsters.

Asakura has informed me that the three dwarves in charge are mapping this part out still. She sees them sometimes stop to chalk in the new tunnels we find sometimes. She’s good at interpreting their movements and psychology it seems.

At least one of the dwarf lieutenants is named Hrogin.

Asakura discovered this after listening to them talk for awhile. She revealed it to me as soon as she was sure of it.

She only caught this from the dwarves asking him what to do when there is more than one choice that can produce an outcome, such as a split in the tunnel sections. He’s the white haired dwarf, one of the ones we’d seen first that had entered earlier. He seems pretty old, though still stable in spite of his age and strong. Like the other dwarves he’s covered in mail armor.

The mail alone could make a full day of study. It’s a series of interlocking small scales made very similar to how reptile scales mesh and protect an organism, but made for people. His looks like it’s seen a lot of fights, while still being in good condition it is clearly used and marked up with scars all over it.

The others seem to revere him with some kind of hero worship. But dwarven culture is different. Maybe they just have more respect for authority? Or is he just a bad ass, or maybe both? I am still figuring out what dwarves as a whole value and that means there might be different reasons why dwarves are in awe of him than what humans might consider.

His lieutenants I don’t know the names of yet, but they are intensely powerful in battle and very strong. They have slain more goblins than anyone else, as we roam through the tunnels.

“I thought after the cave-in there wouldn’t be any more goblins,” Asakura pointed out.

“I’m not sure either. But there shouldn’t be, but there are? How is that possible?” I said back.

“Could they have found some other way in?” Rina asked.

I didn’t think Rina would say anything helpful, but her hypothesis seems to be the only thing that’s reasonable.

“Now I get it. There must be something we’ve all missed. Something small and maybe too simple that’s been overlooked,” I said. “What do you think? Can you confirm or show anything as an alternative?”

“I think your right,” Asakura confirmed.

Hrogin later finds a new tunnel system for us to explore with the dwarves.

These tunnels go for miles, I realized!

“Yep, it proves he’s the leader for a reason. It’s not just about age,” Asakura says next to me after it happens.

“I just hope he’s friendly to humans,” I said aloud.

“That’s a good question. Right now he has to be friendly to us, but after we get out of this mess I’m not sure how things might change,” Asakura said back, considering my comments thoughtfully.

We’re all hopeful it will help us find a way out. We end up going this way but have to be more careful because the tunnel is narrower.

The dwarves kill a ton of goblins in this tunnel as we roam hunt going over every nook and cranny to look for them. We take careful advance movements to try to make sure we don’t miss anything hiding in ambush. It seems that goblins are good at hiding too. But it’s strange that I don’t remember this one tunnel very well. I’ve been in it a few times, but not far in.

“Why are there more goblins in this tunnel than the others?” Asakura asked.

I shrug, “don’t know. But you are right. There are more of them in this section than the others.”

“What do you think it means?” Rina asked us.

“I think this must be the area where they are getting in if there are more of them in this vicinity,” I said. “Or something here is drawing them closer to this spot. I’m not sure which yet.”

“Yeah, I hadn’t considered that something also might draw them here,” Asakura said.

Then we discover, this was a supply storage area. But because the gnomes had a lot of alcoholics there really isn’t any treasure or anything worthwhile here. What gnomes consider treasure not many people would agree with them on with public opinion.

Rina also points it out, “this place is filthy. Everything here is like a junk heap of stuff from an old moldy basement too.”

“Of course the gnomes wouldn’t want a bunch of humans going through their stuff. So they hadn’t shown us this tunnel,” I said.

We circle back again over the main tunnel system after the dwarves hacked up every goblin they could. Goblins don’t have much money and we don’t loot them since we’re afraid of getting out alive. It’s been the same way all day.

Come on, come on...we need a clue, I kept thinking to myself this whole time.

We need a breakthrough!

By nightfall suddenly Hrogin has found how the goblins are getting in. It seems that when we inspected some of the goblin bodies that the dwarves have slain, we found they were all wet. It’s the first clue, and it’s an instant break through.

If they are wet then…

So this cave system is totally cut off from everything except for some small air tubes that are too small to escape through. The only exception is the water spring system. When Hrogin points to it, we can see that the dwarves are really unhappy. They have figured it out.

A few seconds later Asakura and I look at each other realizing the meaning as well.

We find ourselves having surrounded the water spring system en mass with all of us together. There’s no doubt that many of the goblins have gotten inside this way through the spring’s water tunnel. Plus there is a steady system of tracks from the goblin feet all leading to this spot.

But nobody wants to go in the water to find out where it leads. A place like that will give you a feeling of like being trapped in and being smothered, not to mention the fear of drowning, being trapped, being unable to see, and all kinds of claustrophobia nonsense.

And this is probably why dwarves start to fear water. But we’re trapped in here except for the underground stream system. We have no idea how narrow it is or how long it leads in either direction up or down before adjoining to another part of the cave system.

“If they came in here from the water spring system, then it must lead somewhere right?” Asakura’s voice said next to me.

“You think it leads to another cave system?” I asked.

“I hate caves,” Rina said. “Dark and creepy, and you can feel like earwigs and centipedes crawling on you at night but can’t see them.”

“If it’s another cave system who knows what could be in there,” Asakura said shrugging.

“Yeah, that could be a major problem,” I agreed.

“I just remember why caves freak me out,” Asakura said in fright bumping into me.

The dwarves are arguing with each other now too. No one wants to be the one to explore such icy cold water that would bring on hypothermia within minutes. We also can’t all explore it at once because we have to reduce the risk to as few people as possible till we can figure out how safe the water is.

A really cold stream like that without being able to see and without knowing how long it goes could definitely be a death trap easily if we went the wrong way.

We’ve decided to rest while they guard the pool in waves. Every now a whole troop of several goblin scouts comes through the churning spring and surface to get out of the pool. Then the dwarves kill them quickly.

Wow, they are still trying to use the spring system. I thought they’d finished their invasion already when the cave-in occurred.

But shouldn’t the goblins think everyone is dead already? Are they looking for any survivors? That would imply a heavy determination to eradicate all life except their own, among other things.

The dwarves feel bad about the mucky goblin blood bleeding back into the pool. They think it can taint the pool is my guess. They spend a lot of time trying to clear the water after killing groups of goblins coming through. It’s hard and endless work.

It also seems like we have to stay here for a while till we can figure out how to get through.

We resort to having to move some of the goblin bodies into a side cavern. It’s messy work, since their bodies are putrid and smell bad even when they are alive.

But the problem that is bigger than the hypothermia right now of going through the water tunnel and the fear of drowning is knowing that the other end of where we’d come out would for sure have a crap load of goblins guarding it on the other side since they know this is the only surviving way into the main gnome cave system.

Just how many are now at the other side?

And how do I bring Rina across in really cold water, when she’s got health issues?

I need a backup escape plan too.

I wonder too if I should risk putting either Rina or Asakura into one of the slave prison crystals as part of such a plan. It could have a chance to save their life if something happens and even tie our strength to boost each other like with Fox and Sunghee. But which would I do? I have no guarantee how long it will take before I get another chance to unlock the next skill sets in the world governing magic system. It is a world governing magic system isn’t it, I think. That’s an appropriate term according to what Fox had told me about the clash between the demons and the people of this world.

But about which to choose for the next crystal…Rina is definitely weaker and would benefit the most. But there’s a chance I wouldn’t be able to let her out and that may create problems, especially with her being a major head case of being fixated on me, her cousin. I haven’t gotten any kind of confirmation beyond wishful thinking that the slave crystals have a way of releasing prisoners without someone dying. Still to if I do Rina next it could also slow my growth and make a longer time period between getting the next one unlocked.

I also would in a non-death situation rather put Asakura in the soul crystals since she is already going to be with me anyway if our relationship continues to grow. Plus she has been very devoted and can form a healthy relationship with me. Heck she already kind of confessed and tries to remind me every chance she gets. She probably would have more mana than Rina too? If I go by pure survival of the fittest Asakura is a better choice.

It’s a difficult situation. What should I choose? There isn’t a guarantee that I will be able to keep farming goblins until I can upgrade and have another soul crystal open up right away. It could take several upgrades in other areas first.

I have to also think about what if other predators target me.

The dwarves are OK with us resting, particularly me. They somehow know already that mages need lots of rest. Even if I’m a light mage, rather than some other type…or whatever it is that I am.

They share with us some kind of beef jerky. Since dwarves aren’t cannibals I think it’s safe, they seem to have high standards after all.

Rina and Asakura snuggle in close against me as we go to take a nap. It’s not just for play though. This cave is very cold since we’re deep in the earth and because there is a spring here that makes the air damp and cool. If I weren’t so dead tired from the long day then I would have felt more conscientious of all of us sleeping together.

Asakura likes to hold hands while we rest, and put her head hanging onto my shoulder. She snuggles up behind me and I can feel her front pushing into my back. The soft feeling is wonderful.

Seriously, romance is amazing. I had no idea until now. My mind is racing now after her confession. The feeling of having someone with you is very cool.

I can feel her chin come up over between my neck and shoulder and she gives me a good night nap kiss.

The comfort helps my inner spirit to fight against the dread feeling of being trapped.

Will we be able to escape?

The dwarves are having people take naps in shifts while the rest of them guard the pool and clean out goblin bodies.

After a few hours the dwarves wake us up after we rest for a strong nap. They have a fire going in the cavern. They are really good at salvaging material for it. It feels pretty warm. Still it doesn’t feel good sleeping on the ground without good protection against whatever creepy shit is crawling all over in this place; plus all the rocks that were trying to poke into my back.

I notice the dwarves are really alert. They take nothing for granted. But of course they have lost some of their supplies too. Most of them haven’t been able to retrieve their backpacks that were full of supplies. I realize that’s a big problem.

They haven’t talked about it yet with us since they can’t communicate with us well. But there’s no mistaking things, and I remember how all of them had full heavy packs when they originally came in.

Wasn’t all their food in their backpacks? I can’t confirm that yet either but it’s very likely. But if so and there are a lot of dwarves here, not to mention us…

It’s a must for us to reach the other cavern soon it seems.

That means there won’t be any free rides from the dwarves if they are lacking supplies. They will make us help out as if we were dwarves. We’ll be lucky if that’s the best case scenario too. They aren’t obligated to us and we aren’t connected to them, since we’re strangers.

That worries me.

As I’m thinking about it a dwarf comes over and nods at me.

One of the dwarves gets me up, and I wake the others. It’s our turn to help with the watch while the others rest. It also means we switch places. They have the coldest and most tired on the inside area closest to the fire while the others are spread towards the outer ring.

That tells me they’ve been easy on us too.

Rina seems a bit cranky as I get her up. But Asakura has no complaints. I can see her rolling her shoulders and muscles to try to and get the stiffness out though.

Things are still awkward between us because we don’t know how to behave as a couple.

But Asakura does want to try to be real. She gives me a long and tight morning hug. “Hope you had a good nap!” she then gives me a kiss on the forehead. She flashes a smile at me.

“Isn’t this great? It’s nice to be with someone and to be able to trust them,” she said to me.

“Really?” I asked.

“So you don’t feel like…any more worries about before with you worrying about being older than me?” I asked.

She hummed for a minute, “well, one thing I realized was on top of everything else being able to trust someone was more important than how smart they are and how much money they have. Right now neither of us have a lot of wealth but you are very smart, possibly smarter than me; plus you are very trustworthy. I’m not that much older than you anyway. I went to college earlier than most people and finished quickly. All of that about trust though; that counts for a lot, and makes you very mature,” she replied squeezing me again.

I hug her back. I’m a person of a few words. I stay silent. Of course hugging her this long has totally made a certain lower limb very excited. I’m also sure by the way she’s pushing back against me that she’s noticed it too.

“You remember what I said yesterday right?” she asked.

“Yeah, of course.”

“Same thing applies. I want things between us to work out permanently. I really do think I love you Shun. It may be weird in other cultures for it to have started out this way, but we have to have our own way of life here. I think I’m a good choice for a mate, and I don’t have any vices. Some people wouldn’t worry about that part either but vices divide your companion’s trust into other things that they love more than their partner. Finding you and being together before you gain a lot of vices is helpful too. I think I can also nurture your emotional needs since you can’t reach your parents on this world. I’m sorry we don’t have private time. But I do want to be together,” she said. She lets the silence emphasize her resolve and gives me a very determined look.

“Wow. Thanks.” She’s definitely made me think.

She gives me another encouraging nod with a half smile.

Of course I can see a jealous Rina looking at both of us with a betrayed angry look on her face.

But then Rina sneaks up on us, “hey where’s my hug Shun? Are you guys cheating on me?” Rina said. She looks pretty upset.

“It’s not fair you guys pushing me out!” she huffed.

It’s kind of funny seeing her this way. But I can’t feel sorry for her or be too lenient just because Rina is pretty. It’s probably why she ended up this way. Our parents raised her to help around the house and work but somehow were lenient about her oddities.

“What?” I’m confused.

“Shun, is your cousin... always like this?” Asakura whispers in my ear. She gives me an odd look.

“Step sister,” Rina corrected. “We were raised together.”

“But technically you are my cousin,” I told her.

“Whatever...” she’s upset.

“I didn’t have anything to do with encouraging her …problems…” I stated quietly. My hands are in an ‘I don’t know to fix this’ posture.

“Shun…we need to set goals. Also, figure out what kind of life we want as a couple. I don’t want to be demanding, but the little things are what make things count,” Asakura said.

“Like what?” I’m curious what she thinks.

“Like hugs and kissing. And getting up together, staying with each other the whole time. Flowers, doing nice things for each other; I’m not trying to ask for demands you know. But whether or not a couple decides to do things like that has a lot to do with whether or not they find fulfillment in each other,” she said, adding that last part.

“Got it. Let me think about it,” I said trying to buy time. I wasn’t totally being evasive but I did really need to think about what she just said. What was she expecting?

I realized just then also, if she wants goals then she’s serious about this!

But what kind of goals do hot women like?

Everything on this world is different.

Our attention is turned away however by activity among the dwarves. There’s a new hustle of activity as they get closer to the pool. At first we aren’t sure if it’s goblins or something else.

As we move suddenly we see bubbles come to the surface. The other dwarves have their weapons ready in case it’s time to beat down the opposing force. I notice that they are really careful by the pool.

They relax and look relieved when it’s another dwarf. He gives them a positive signal, but it’s also a don’t shoot me kind of signal too.

Oh wow. I didn’t know that they were already trying to brave the water tunnel. They must really want to get out of here.

The dwarf that comes up is full of wet clothes and stripped of armor in swimming shorts of some kind. He’d obviously had to strip off his armor to avoid it drowning him. Then I see that he’s some kind of close combat knife fighter or scout. It makes sense that he’d be the one to go. Some types of weapons like hammers or swords would be difficult to use underwater. But spears and knives would still work. This fellow has a lot of throwing knife belt sheaths on his hips, across his chest, and around one thigh too. His beard hair is woven together in tight ringlets and he has a square jaw and intelligent eyes.

This guy’s someone important. I recognize him as one of the lieutenants that we still didn’t know the names for.

Of course he can’t throw his knives underwater…

It seems that he isn’t the only one. Other dwarves, at least two others are warming up in front of the fire because of being totally wet. Then I notice that they have ropes they’d been using.

Ah, so that’s how they did it.

The dwarf that had just come up out of the water unties the rope around his waist. It seems it was used as a lifeline in case he needed to be pulled back. If the current were to get too strong he could also use it to pull back.

But you would have to have some really good lungs to be able to stay under water like this.

I wonder how long he was under.

They don’t immediately send out another person. It seems like they want to take time to evaluate what he found and give him a chance to warm up. The newest surfaced swimmer dwarf is over by the leader and a few others. They are drawing an underwater map. Someone wraps a blanket around him so he can talk without stuttering from cold.

It’s actually a pretty good mapping system although it’s hell to be the one in the water.

They are excited. That’s good right?

But there will be some letdowns I’m sure too. Nothing goes the right way 100% of the time for anyone.