The deeper Kai walked, the more uneasy he became. The atmosphere of the Dungeon had changed completely, and even the sounds around him seemed different. There were fewer people, fewer signs of other contestants, and the further he went, the darker the path became.
As he reached a narrow passage where only a little sunlight managed to reach through the cracks above, a chill ran down his spine. He slowed his steps and looked around carefully, wondering if he had finally entered an area where the monsters were much more dangerous than the ones he had encountered before.
Was there something waiting for him ahead?
Kai was still lost in thought when several noises suddenly reached his ears. He froze, listening carefully as the sounds echoed through the passage.
There was movement somewhere ahead, followed by what sounded like people arguing. Kai’s heart began beating faster when another voice rang through the darkness.
"Leave me!" A child’s voice cried out, immediately snapping Kai back to reality.
Kai’s eyes widened. He knew that voice.
"Hori!" Kai shouted, before immediately taking off down the passage.
He didn’t stop to think about what might be waiting for him. His legs moved on their own as he rushed deeper into the Dungeon, following the sound of Hori’s voice.
The path became increasingly strange as he ran, and at one point Kai nearly slipped after stepping on something cold beneath his shoe. He quickly caught himself against the wall and looked down.
It looked like icing.
Kai stared at the white substance covering the ground, completely confused. There was no way that was actually icing. Yet when he touched a small piece with his finger, it had the same sticky texture he knew from cooking.
"Icing? In the middle of a Dungeon?" Kai muttered, looking around suspiciously.
He didn’t have time to think about it for long because another strange sight immediately caught his attention. A few meters ahead stood what looked like a giant cake, except the cake had somehow formed into a cage around a man.
His body was stuck inside the thick layers, with only his upper half sticking out. Kai’s first thought was that the poor man had been trapped by some monster, but that thought quickly disappeared when he noticed the man calmly chewing on the cake surrounding him.
"Are you... eating your way out?" Kai asked, staring at him.
The man looked at Kai while continuing to chew, before nodding as though this was the most normal thing in the world.
Kai stared at the cake before looking back at the man. He couldn’t even decide whether to laugh or be concerned.
"Who did this to you?" Kai asked.
"A girl. Pink hair, probably around your age. She caught me and my friends when we were trying to take someone." The man said.
Kai’s expression immediately changed.
"Take someone?" Kai asked.
The man nodded before explaining that he and his friends had been hired to kidnap a little boy. They had followed the boy into this area, but before they could take him, the pink-haired girl appeared and attacked them.
She had used some strange ability that created the cake around him and had dealt with the others before disappearing.
"Wait, what did the kid look like?" Kai asked.
The man described the child, and Kai immediately knew who he was talking about. It was Hori. His stomach tightened as he looked farther down the path.
"Where is he?" Kai asked.
"I don’t know. The girl took him and ran deeper inside." The man said.
Kai didn’t waste another second. He left the man behind and rushed through the passage, following the trail of icing that covered the ground.
The further he went, the more cake like objects he found scattered around. Broken pieces of frosting and strange sweet smelling materials covered the floor until finally, the path opened into a small clearing.
Kai stopped.
There was no sign of Hori.
Instead, a girl with bright pink hair lay unconscious on the ground.
Kai immediately recognised her from the man’s description.
"You’re the girl..." Kai muttered.
He looked around quickly, searching for Hori, but there was no sign of the boy anywhere. Kai crouched beside the girl and checked whether she was breathing. She was alive, but completely unconscious. Whatever had happened before he arrived had clearly exhausted her.
Kai wasn’t sure what to do. She had apparently been fighting the kidnappers, which meant she might not be an enemy.
At the same time, she had apparently taken Hori somewhere, and Kai had no idea whether she had done it to protect him or for another reason. You are reading on g.com, the official source.
Leaving her alone didn’t feel right either.
"Okay... I’ll wait until you wake up." Kai said.
Kai pulled out his cooking equipment from his spatial storage and began setting up a small fire nearby.
If the girl woke up, she would probably need something to eat, and Kai figured food was one thing he could actually offer without making the situation worse.
He found several large leaves he had collected earlier in the Dungeon and decided to try making tea. After washing them, he placed them into a small container with water and began heating it over the fire.
The leaves released a pleasant smell as they slowly steeped, and Kai began looking around for something he could use as a sweetener.
A strange looking rock caught his attention.
Kai picked it up and examined it carefully before taking a tiny taste.
His eyes widened.
"Sugar?" Kai asked himself, staring at the rock.
It looked like an ordinary piece of stone, but somehow it tasted exactly like sugar. Kai immediately became interested and broke off a small piece, crushing it into the tea.
The sweet smell mixed with the leaves as the tea finished brewing. Kai poured some into a cup and placed it beside the unconscious girl before sitting near the fire.
He looked toward her again, then toward the path where Hori had disappeared.
"Just where did you take him?" Kai wondered.
He had finally found the person responsible for the trail he’d been following, but instead of getting answers, he had ended up sitting beside an unconscious pink haired girl with a cup of Dungeon tea.
Kai sighed and stared into the fire.
Hopefully, she would wake up soon.