Despite saying she wished to go out in the nightmare, she plopped down on the moss. And without a wasted moment, Berdrogh did so as well, taking pleasure in finding a spot to lean against. The time quietly passed; it was expected. He was practically made for dungeons; he didn’t need to sleep for ages or to eat entirely. But they were in a different, more exhausting boat.

  It quite honestly sucked that he was still in a wolf’s body; without Pochirin’s absurd origins, even with his high-level, he would have been far more useless. Kanade slumped to the moss beside him; her eyelids were barely hanging on for dear life. She kept blinking at a slow, tired pace; her eyes darted around or locked onto a spot somewhere in the distance at random.

  Berdrogh was taking this easier, it seemed. After a couple of minutes he crossed his legs and closed his eyes, taking the time to breathe casually. Han quickly recognized the famous pose, though he had trouble believing the big guy was peacefully meditating. He vividly remembered him clashing in a strength brawl against a skeletal wyvern.

  “We’re…” Kanade spoke first; her voice got stuck before she was interrupted.

  “Don’t say it.” He said in a calm mutter and seemingly without breaking his inner peace.

  “You’re annoying.” She rolled over and faced away from him. As the thought of biting his hand came about.

  “I know, I know…” He opened his eyes and looked at Kanade with a complex expression that he couldn’t pinpoint. After a shallow sigh, he spoke, “We’re going to be fine.” Even though he reassured them, but he didn’t hide his knit brows to Han. Seeing as they were in the middle of nowhere and God knows how deep, Han didn’t blame him. He was the only one keeping her sane; there had to be a point to Pochirin’s cuteness where it couldn’t work. It was best not to reach it.

  “Is that?” Kanade sluggishly sat up, her groggy eyes mustering every molecule of focus they had back at the tree behind them. “Aren’t those plums?” Han roughly followed her gaze at the rogue twigs, and a lot of them seemed to have what looked to be juicy red plums.

  “If you say they are.” Understandably, he didn’t even attempt to check while Kanade lay back down.

  “Ah… Another thing,” She rolled back to face Berdrogh. Then grabbed Pochirin’s tail to lie on as a pillow. “There has to be an exit, right? A way back up?”

  Did… Did she do that just as a guise?

  “Should be. I do have to add… I haven’t heard of this kind of environment. Ever. And I’ve been up to the hellhole that is the upper 30s… twice, but this.” His eyes glance over the bleakly vibrant, two-toned, root-ridden horizon. “This is a whole different beast.” She rolled onto her back to stare at the stone ceiling above while still on his tail.

  “So we’re somewhere below forty?”

  Probably even fifty…

  “…Maybe even fifty.” He darted back to Kanade, who hadn’t moved. “I-I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just… As far as I know, we’ve never been past the 45th floor boss. It’s some lanky guy with six floating arms… ah.” Noticing him lowering the vibe again, he stopped. He was the veteran among them, but Han took it with a grain of salt; there was no way a high-level player hadn’t embarked on these floors.

  “Pochirin doesn’t need to eat, and I barely have enough food for me.” She paused, letting him interject, to which he waved his head shamefully. That prick was managing his rations.

  “We’ll need to try to get those plums and see if they’re poisonous. Can you get some firewood? I should be able to—“ She paused when he pointed upwards. Han wanted to glance at the ceiling but then noticed that it was bright. Despite there being no apparent light source whatsoever, it was as bright as a midday outside would be. The other thing he was quick to note.

  “It’s not cold either…” Kanade pointed out.

  “I also have a feeling that hurting the trees will bring trouble.” He added.

  He’s right…

  Weirdly enough, it was akin to a nature reserve. Perfect conditions for anything to foster, whether it may be plants, fungi or monsters. It made sense. The roots were seemingly meant to protect the trees, an enclosure perhaps. Han’s mind opened up; unseen birds chirped, vines rustled, and various ripe fruit were hidden by the giant humid leaves. Even ants trekked around in the moss without a bother. The signs of life were always there, and around them, he was just too tunnel-visioned to see beyond the eeriness of the dungeon. As it seemed to him, she had noticed either, as her eyes widened, and then she sat up to look around with a new perspective.

  “Can we… can we stay here for the night?” She blurted out, hiding her deep inhale for some reason. Though Berdrogh, he wasn’t in a hurry to respond.

  “There’s no rush. We’ll leave when we’re ready.” He slowly stood up and turned his neck side to side, yet during that, he managed to catch Kanade getting ready to stand up as well. “I’m not going far; besides, duty calls.”

  “Mm…” She nodded, getting the gist of it. As Berdrogh wandered off, understandably and frustratingly, her focus shifted to Han. She hugged him; she quickly made clear how huge he had become. Her hands, which were usually clasped around his neck, were not able to touch. “At least you’re okay…”

  “Don’t think I can even get hurt.” He absentmindedly responded. Surviving that many lethal blows was quite bizarre. Could he even feel pain anymore? Didn’t seem so to him. His short dissociating session stopped when their eyes met; her unblinking surprised eyes were accompanied by a grin that slowly curled upwards. As it happened, he began guessing, yet everything led to the same conclusion.

  No way…?

  “I-I-I! Can understand you?!” Han guessed that he weighed more than double her, though that didn’t stop her from pushing him down onto the moss. “Ah!! You’re so big! I—What do I even ask?! Mm…” As she was thinking, Han used Egstoss before he would pass out. Somehow, only then did his heartbeat increase, even though this wasn’t the first or the last interaction they had. This time it was personal. Aside from that, they shared their focus.

  What do I even say?

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  Being in the background was completely fine to Han; he wasn’t exactly social to begin with, so this shifted their dynamic to a degree he wasn’t prepared for. She would get to know him under the guise that he was her familiar. As he was thinking, the seemingly warm moment passed far quicker than he could ever anticipate.

  Kanade let go and sat down across from him, missing nearly everything she had showcased a moment before; her blank eyes stared at his, clearly trying to read his mind. That shift made his brain freeze for a moment, especially when he saw her lips move.

  “…Juuka.” She said. Han only managed to hear the end of her sentence, but then she repeated it. “What happened to her?” Thinking of a topic himself was a tad too hard, but then she gave him an easy one.

  “She died.” Without a second thought he opted to answer. “One of the wyvern’s spiked impaled her h—”

  “And the wyvern itself…?” She asked before he could thoroughly explain. Where was this aggression coming from? Han had to ask himself if he was acting uncouthly or densely, but she was waiting for his answer, not allowing him to correct himself.

  “It…” Once more he spoke without thinking, not noticing that the trivia got harder. He couldn’t remember if the wyvern was even falling with them. Although he didn’t glance back at the base of the tree, that was a possibility.

  “I don’t know. It could’ve died as well.” Hindered by the fact he didn’t truly know and that Kanade was being rather weird made the whole situation tense. And then when she patted his head, it only intensified the uncertainty. Before he could once again think his actions over.

  “I can hear him! Did you?!” She asked the approaching Berdrogh without stopping the circular motion patting on his head.

  He shook his head. “But you sure do.” He sat down on the moss, letting out a barely audible sigh that they both evidently heard.

  “That again…?” She finally stopped and left Han be but then gently pushed his snout towards Berdrogh’s direction. “I’m not lying.” She stared at him with the returned emotions that, at least he assumed, wanted him to say something to Berdrogh.

  After practically following Berdrogh’s aging sighing pattern one to one, he began thinking. Although there was a big possibility he couldn’t hear him and it was Kanade’s class coming into play, he still could guarantee proving her sanity. What was something only both of them knew?

  They were nearly always together. Even when those two logged out, they were still all together. Han was always with Kanade when he was near. No, not always. There was that moment.

  “Your right shin should be bruised from when I bit you.” He said while glancing at his dented metal shin guard that had multiple deep teeth marks.

  “Mhm. I can hear him.” He said it without even caring to look at him when he talked. However, he hadn’t answered his question.

  “So? Is it bruised?” Although Han had caught on, Kanade still believed and checked again.

  “What is?” He asked.

  “Your right shin…” Berdrogh then raised his eyebrows for a moment. As they went down, Kanade nodded, seemingly wishing for a bigger reaction.

  “You’re not surprised?”

  “Hmph. By now, what haven’t I seen?” He chuckled. “Though, your senses are exceptional. Notice anything we could’ve missed?” He asked, finally holding eye contact with him, akin to a person. Alas, Han averted his. Kanade at least looked at him like a pet or a friend, which gave him a barrier to hide in. He shifted back on the debacle, which he knew he couldn’t add much to.

  Despite him asking, Han was the one surprised by his broad view initially. However, he had missed something glaring that he might not know of, but a player would.

  “…Don’t overuse your skills?” She repeated.

  “Your wolf—“ His brows furled in a serious manner that befit his tone; he leaned forward in a manner that Han didn’t appreciate.

  “Hound…” She whispered, ignoring the way he was acting. And due to the loud silence, he was interrupted.

  “What is your… hound exactly? How does he know of skills? This level of sentience is something a mere wolf shouldn’t have.” His statement aside, the topic itself was directed at Kanade; he was pushed aside in the conversation akin to when parents bickered.

  “W-What the hell do you mean by that?” She surprisingly didn’t back down and piped up. However, this was not the time to endlessly one-up each other.

  “Relax. Both of you. Look where we are.” He said, clearly stopping both of them mid-thought. Though, Berdrogh questioningly looked at them, to which she quickly interpreted what he said. They both uncomfortably sat in silence for a moment. They were acting like they should. Both in the depths of hell, the situation kept getting weirder and wackier every moment. But something wasn’t right with him; this proved a point. Why was he so calm?

  “You’re right. I apologize.” He deeply breathed in and unintentionally let Han join in on the conversation. “I’ve three skills. It took me years to use them almost efficiently. I’ve mastered them with time… but they really started taking their toll on me in a way. To help with that, I meditate.” He spoke without anger, malice, or regret. A calm man, or rather, a thankful one.

  “Is it like my hypershot?” She asked while Han focused on the part that it somehow took years for him to even barely use skills. The skills themselves had left his memory some time ago, but they weren’t the upgraded versions. And, in fact, they were beginner-level 5 skills. Something wasn’t adding up.

  “That’s what you call it?” Berdrogh smiled for some reason.

  “Mm.” She shook her head. “It came to me in a dream. You?”

  “A priest of Adam bestowed one, and the rest, as you say.”

  A priest? A dream?

  Nothing was making sense at this point. Was this how NPCs gain skills? This had to be such a ludicrous way of getting stronger. That already crossed out multiple reasons why there were so few of NPC adventurers. Then his mind blanked at a very stupid revelation.

  “Does the word ‘level’ mean anything to you? And… who told you to meditate…?” She asked, interpreting what Han said.

  “I do, but it relates to nothing but carpentry to me. The one who showed me was the same priest. I was Kanade’s age when I met him. Haven’t seen him in a decade, I’d bet he hasn’t aged a day since then. While I stand adjacent to Adam, that man… he’s alongside Adam.” His tone had darkened; as for his eyes, they shifted to the ground. Seeing this big guy curl up like Juuka was something he didn’t foresee.

  This just made more questions, and who the hell is Adam?

  “I don’t know much about the gods. Isn’t it never too late to believe in what you want to believe?” She comforted him while Han racked his brain for a memory of a certain Adam.

  “Adam would take me behind his shield any time I wished. I am not worthy of his protection. If I was… we wouldn’t have been in this place to begin with.” He rebutted without a wince of envy and even scoffed at himself at the end.

  “What kind of God is he?” She asked, to which Berdrogh quickly lit up at her question.

  “Adam is the—“

  “God of War.” Han said at the same time, then a pure red list obscured his vision.

  [DIVINITY IN QUESTION]

  [ALL AVAILABLE(BASED ON STATUS)]

  [ADAM, GOD OF WAR]

  [EVE, GODDESS OF PROSPERITY]

  [Evelyn]

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  ? NOTE: DIVINITY CAN ONLY BE CHOSEN WHENEVER GIVEN THE CHANCE.