I wake up to birds chirping and the sun shining down on my face from the inn's windows. As I recall what happened yesterday I get ready and take all my stuff with me. I'm a little earlier to the meeting place than expected and I don't see my companion Sena around, so I decide to go shopping for a bit. I see a shop called "Joe's smithy", not a very creative name but I do need a weapon so I enter.

"Welcome! what can I do for you today?"

I'm greeted by a kid with blond hair, he looks like he's around 10 years old and has a big grin on his face.

"Oh hello there I'm here to look for a weapon, are you taking care of the shop for your parents?"

"This is uncle Joe's store, he's working on a bigg sword!"  He waves his hands, making a gesture trying to show how big the sword is.

"Wow that's cool, do you know when Joe will be back?" I ask wondering how irresponsible this Joe guy is for letting a kid be in charge of a shop full of weapons.

"hmmmm, uncle doesn't like talking to other people so most of the time papa does all the talking here. But he's sick so I'm the boss todayyy!"   

"....do you have any recommendations for- uhh less powerful people?" I ask, mostly because I didn't want to just leave right then and there. 

"I dunno most weaklings use magic and go BAMM! and WHOOSSHE!" 

"Y-yeah they do use spells right..." I say suddenly depressed since I've never learnt magic.

"But mister you can use a crossbow or something like that I've seen lots of girls who use those."

"I-I'll take one," I reply, crying on the inside.

"It's okay mister, I'm sure you'll be very strong if you find a nice artifact or one of those weird dungeon thingies!" 

As he tries to cheer me up I pay about 2 silver coins for a small compact crossbow supposedly enchanted with a flame gem, so it ignites the tip of its arrows every time it fires.

"It's been nice meeting ya kid, I'll be sure to come again another time when your father comes back."

"Byeee!"

I feel defeated as I just went along with what a kid was saying and bought what he recommended. But honestly, it doesn't look like a bad weapon. As there's still probably some time until Sena comes, I continue walking around for a bit. The city really is lively, there are plenty of shops and houses everywhere and tons of adventurers walking around. Even some of those elves, dwarves and beastmen who just also suddenly appeared that day 6 years ago. All of them say that they've always been there but that was never the case. I wonder if I'm the only one who finds all this weird as everyone just accepted them. This is so strange, I think as one of an elf bumps into me.

"Sorry," He says with a slight bow.

"It's fine- wait."

 As he casually continues walking and I stop him by grabbing his arm.

"Real slick aren't you, I thought elves were all about morals," I say, as I see my wallet in his hands and take it.

the elf breaks into a dash and runs away

"Damn he left, well at least I got something" I down onto my left hand in which I holding onto a small box that I snagged from his pocket. I guess humans- elves, or whatever we're all greedy and selfish.

'If you steal you should be prepared to be stolen from' I think as I continue walking.

"Oh shit! I forgot about Sena" I break into a dash to the meeting spot we decided on.

After about 10 minutes I get there and see her waiting.

"Klen. I'm sure you realize you're late." She gives me a chilling glare.

"Oh you remembered my name, I'm flattered" I look away pretending not to notice her bad mood.

"So you had something so important to do that you kept me waiting huh."

"Sorry- I just lost track of time a little."

"I see, so I'm sure you're prepared then."

"Prepared for what-" She grabs my shirt and drags me to the most expensive-looking restaurant she could find.

"Prepared to pay for breakfast."

"I guess I am..."  I think about my funds and then tell myself tomorrow I really need to go out and find some ways to make an income.

After eating some kind of rare sheep meat at that fancy-looking restaurant we pack some essentials for adventuring such as ropes, maps and some food. After that, we headed to Red Flare dungeon which was about 3 hours away, named after the glowing red flowers which grow all over the entrance.

"These flowers look so nice," Sena says as she picks a flower up.

"Yeah they really do glow"

Before us lies a gate dozens of meters long that enters into a mountain.

"Have you ever been to a dungeon before?" Sena asks.

"Nope this is my first time, I've never even killed a monster before. Have you been in one?" I reply.

"I have not, there aren't exactly many dungeons where I'm from" 

"Is that so..."

We see a couple of parties of adventurers around the entrance and continue through the dungeon's gates.

"Damn this place is huge!" I say as I see tons of different paths and a few merchants who have set up shop inside. Sena looks around in awe at the sheer size of the dungeon.

"I can definitely see why people find new places to explore every day,"

"Well let's get going"

I pick a random path and we set out to explore the dungeon, as I have a good sense of direction I don't think we need to map out the place. After a couple of minutes of walking, we find a spider-like creature about the size of a dog. 

"What the hell is that" Sena says as she pokes it with the cheap sword we picked out when getting supplies.

"HEY don't poke it- what if it jumps??" I pull out my crossbow and aim it at the creature with one too many eyes.

The spider hisses and jumps onto the ceiling shooting blue webs. Klen quickly moves out of the way.

"gross." Sena shoves the sword right into the head of the spider and some of its blood gets on me.

"Why did you have to kill it when it was above me?" I complain wiping off the blood from my shirt.

"Well, you sure did a good job distracting it or maybe that was payback for keeping me waiting earlier" Sena replies as she laughs.

"I already apologized didn't I" 

We continue walking and find a room with a chest. Sena walks towards it.

"Don't bother, someone else has probably looted it already" I say.

"I've read that dungeon chests restock after a while."

Sena opens the chest only to find that it's completely empty.

"I heavily doubt that."

"huh."

As we continue walking I hear some noises.

"Hey do you hear that? It's like a "swish swash" noise"

"I don't hear anythi-"

We look back only to see a dozen of those spider-like creatures from before.

"RUN!"

As we're both running for our lives we enter another chamber, I see a door and take Sena's hand.

"here!" I say as we enter through the door and I immediately close it. We can still hear the spiders but I'm sure they can't open doors, right?

"I-I think... we lost... them," Sena says as she catches her breath.

"Yeah, that was... scary" I realize that I'm still holding Sena's hands and immediately let go while feeling a bit embarrassed. I can see Sena blushing a bit from the corner of my eye but maybe she was just that tired.

"...do you still remember where we are?" She asks.

"I'm sure it'll be fine I mostly remember where we went but the problem is there are those spider things blocking the way."

"Mostly huh." Sena looks at me with a questioning face.

"I saw tons of adventurers outside, surely we'll bump into a party or two. Don't worry about it."

"But seeing how huge this place is... I'm not so sure"

"Well we should at least keep going nothing good will come of just waiting, I do have my trusty compass you know. I've marked the general direction of the entrance, 23 degrees North to East."

"hmm.. let's keep going for now then" 

As we continue walking through a rather tall hallway full of weird cryptic paintings and rusted weapons we encounter an undead.

"I'll shoot him with my crossbow and then we can swiftly attack him" I whisper while Sena nods and hides back.

Klen takes out his crossbow and shoots the undead right on its skull.

"Let's go!"

Sena takes her dagger and breaks the undead's neck off while it's recovering while I pour some holy water on him. The undead burns into nothingness.

"I guess those merchants weren't lying after all." I say while looking around for any more monsters.

"Hey K-Klen look at this.." Sena says.

A mountain of skeletons lies before us, all piled up on each other.

"I have a bad feeling about this let's get out of here"

"Yeah we should-"

A large rumbling noise can be heard

"What the hell is that..."

I look in shock as I see a giant lizard with three fangs standing on two legs emerging from the pile of skeletons. It turns its giant eyes and stares me down while roaring.