I moved my torso to the side of my body as much as I could so that my head was close to hers, and continued showing my affection with my hand in her hair.

“And you say I have a calming effect on you,” Cellestra said softly.

I suppressed a grin. “I’m so happy I can do this without fear of making you feel uncomfortable.”

“You can do this whenever you want,” she whispered.

“That’s nice.”

The wonderful moment between the two of us was utterly ruined when another loud grumble came from my stomach, joined by jolts of pain.

“Ugh, this sucks…” I complained. All the brunette did was giggle at the sound, which made it impossible for me to be grumpy.

“Let’s go to sleep,” Cellestra suggested. “And get you something to eat first thing in the morning. I don’t want to see you suffer more than you already do.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “Good night, Cellestra.”

“Good night, Kealyna.”

She patted my head before sinking her head in the hair at my side as she got comfortable. I then gave up on staying awake completely.

I awoke with a yawn, feeling comfortable, as was always the case with a bed of hair this soft. Cellestra was already awake but was still seated at my side.

“Morning, Kealyna. How are you feeling?”

“Hungry,” I said the first word that came to mind.

The purple-eyed elf giggled again. “As expected. I’ve already eaten some, so I’m ready whenever you are. You looked far too peaceful to wake up.”

“Thank you for that. I feel great otherwise. How about you?”

“I’m bound to feel good with such a nice pillow.”

I grinned as I stood up and stretched my arms. “Alright then. Let’s get something to eat. I’m telling you, I’ve looked forward to this ever since I had a bite yesterday. I'm hoping it tastes as good cooked as it is raw. I need your opinion on it, desperately.” I took our belongings and prepared them for transport.

“You make it sound like it’s the best thing in the world.”

“It might as well be,” I said jokingly as I reached for the key with one of my pedipalps.

When we left the building, I made sure to lock it again. Then, I set out to see where my parents were to hand them the key before heading to the dungeon. I found them both sitting at the table outside their residence. My father was scribbling words on a piece of paper, while my mother was sorting a thin stack of smaller sheets. If I recall correctly, they were checking inventory.

“Good morning,” I said as I approached, Cellestra walking at my side.

“Morning,” my father said. “Did you sleep well?”

I nodded. “I did. Thanks a lot.” I put the key on the table. “Elira is at school, I suppose?”

My father put his quill down and nodded. “Glad to know you slept well. I was a bit worried about that. How’s your eye?”

“My eye is fine. No need to worry about me, dad. I’m a big girl now.”

He and my mother both chuckled. “I suppose that’s true. Yes, Elira is at school. You were heading into the dungeon you said, right?”

“Yeah. With a bit of luck, we’ll also have something for dinner tonight. I figured I’d mention it before you start cooking.”

“Sounds lovely,” Lilinia said. “I’m looking forward to it.”

She stood up and took me in for a hug. “Please stay safe out there. You too, Cellestra.”

“We will,” I assured her.

We weren’t going to venture deep, but one nasty thought did enter my mind. Technically, we haven’t completed the trial yet. What if we weren’t allowed in the dungeon? The contract we signed did say we weren’t allowed to enter dungeons that exceeded our rank, but this was the dungeon where the ranks were determined thanks to its low entry skill level. Besides that, we’d already cleared a floor. I reckoned as long as we didn’t go past the point where we were in our trial, we’d be fine.

After wishing them good luck with what they were doing, Cellestra hopped on my back and we set out to the forest. It wasn’t long before we reached the camp around the dungeon entrance. Some soldiers were cooking something in a pot over a fire and there seemed to be a few adventurers gathering at the entrance of the one building.

Though, calling them adventurers was probably a bit far-fetched. There were two men and one woman in shabby leather armor that barely passed as such. In honesty, I didn’t know what they were doing here. Then again, I guessed they could get a fairly low rank in the guild so they could at least do some missions or something.

I doubted there would be much for them, but I admired their spirits. They had at least been smart enough to bring spears; literally the easiest weapon there was.

The soldiers acknowledged us with nods and the beginner adventurers with a healthy amount of fear. I waved back with my front two limbs as I made a beeline for the portal.

I stepped through to be greeted by one of the titan anteaters. It was only now that I noticed it possessed formidable weaponry in the form of long, sharp claws. I had my weapon at the ready, but the animal was passive, skittish even as it walked in the opposite direction.

I ignored it and made sure my barrier was active for the only thing that could pose a threat on my way to a proper lunch — the stalking lionesses.

I ran through the first area in no time, but I took my time wading a way through the long grass that hid dangerous foes. It turned out to be the smart option, because, at one point, I got ambushed from up close with almost no time to react. I barely had enough time to swing the rear end of my weapon’s pole at the feline’s head, before finishing it off with a stab through its flank.

You have killed a Steppe Lioness: No experience was awarded.

“Thanks, Elysa…” I said sarcastically. Sometimes this blessing was amazing when it came to showing me what exactly I killed, but sometimes, it just felt so unnecessary.

After making sure Cellestra was okay, we moved on towards the area where my prey roamed.

“Crap,” I let out. “How will we get the meat back to my parents without making a mess?”

“We’ll butcher it, then rinse it with water,” Cellestra said. “After that, I can cool it and just put it in the bag. That should be more than enough.”

“I’ll trust you on that, but how dangerous is that spell?”

“It’s a form of minor magic and is a very slow process. I’ve never had that spell go wrong.”

“Alright,” I said, eying a target in the distance. “Let’s get this done then. I wonder if I’ll obtain any new skill from this.”

“You never know until you eat,” Cellestra said with a large smile.

I grinned as I started running.

Soon, the bison I was chasing spotted me and started a charge. As before, I blocked it with a wall before quickly dismissing the spell and summoning earthen spikes below it. I didn’t use any venom this time around because I didn’t want to mix that in the meat. Cooking may get rid of its more dangerous effects — if there were any since it was venom and not poison — but I didn’t want to ruin the flavor for Cellestra and the others.

It put me at a slight handicap as only earthen spikes didn’t seem to be able to finish it off as quickly. Unable to watch the suffering, I decided to attack it with my lightning arc spell.

The spell built up strength as I ran circles around the bovine. It wasn’t the fastest, but it was still faster than making it bleed to death. At last, its suffering was ended as it collapsed to the parched dirt.

“Finally…” I said before sighing. “I’ll cut out a nice slab for transport first.” I lowered myself.

“Understood,” the brunette said as she dismounted.

I cleaned my halberd of the lion blood from earlier using a stream of hot water before using the blade to carefully cut the bison’s skin. I then carved a large chunk of meat which I was confident would be enough for several days for the others to eat. I rinsed it thoroughly and placed it on Cellestra’s outstretched hands.

With my thermal vision, I saw the temperature around her hands and the meat drop slowly as I ripped the rest of the beast’s skin out of the way and started stripping off pieces of meat with my pedipalps before devouring the succulent meat.

Cellestra, in the meantime, started laughing out loud, causing me to turn my head to her.

“I did not know you could get excited for food like that. Apparently, I was wrong.”

I looked down into my spider eyes and saw my ears twitching as I was eating. I smiled and shook my head as I was left speechless.