Chapter 22: Metal Feast

Mun awakes to the sound of trickling water. His eyes groggily from sleep, focuses on Lucas naked body. Mun quickly notices that he is still wrapped around her body.

The sight quickly brings Mun to his senses, with a panicked movement, he shifts his body off her and lays her on the ground next to him.

"you're awake." Mun nearly jumps as he hears the snakes gentle voice.

"yeah." Mun awkwardly responds as Luca rubs her eyes awake.

"I couldn't move because of ..."

"Please don't say anymore!!" he yells as he runs to shut her mouth with his hand. A sense of shame creeps into his subconscious. Mun shakes his head, as he shifts his thought to something more pleasant, but instead of remembering something pleasant, he remembers the words he whispered to Luca the previous night.

I'm glad that I can't turn red in this body; he thinks as his body begins to shape into a skeletal figure, his hand still on Luca as he does so.

Mun releases his grip off Luca's mouth before asking, " Do you know how long we've been out?"

"Too long" she responds pointing to the glowing red hallways.

As far as Mun can see, every single hallway is lit a terrible red hue, Luca's body shakes

as Mun's hand leaves her out of its embrace. Somehow being near him makes her less afraid, she slithers closer, with this thought in mind, to Mun. As she suspects, every inch closer calms her rapidly beating heart. Now, only inches away, she extends her hand to his skeletal figure, only a bit further she tells herself. Before she can reach him a nasty thought begins to form inside her head, What if he gets angry at me again? what will I do then? She pushes her hand down at the last moment, her body begins to shake again.

"Does this place look familiar?" she shakes her head, she knows every inch of the fourth floor, but this wasn't it, it was a floor she has never seen before.

"we should find a safe room," Mun suggests.

"no." Her voice is soft, almost shy, as she speaks, "safe rooms don't work while the stones are red." Mun turns to around, He nearly jumps as he sees Luca no more than 6 inches away from, too close, he thinks as his legs instinctively

begin to move backward.

"Please take a few steps back," Mun asks as he avoids her eyes, I might change my mind if I look at her eyes, he thinks, Wait? why would that change my mind, why does it matter? Mun knows the answers to his questions, he can feel it every time he looks at her. He remembers what he felt for her. The reason she is still alive is because of him. He knows the answer, holds it in his hands and throws it away, denying the truth.

I can't trust her easily, he thinks as he adds an extra lock to his heart.

Luca takes a few steps back, Mun can see her jitters, her shaking with every step she takes away from him. He looks at her and thinks, This much should be fine.

Mun takes a few steps forward towards her, Luca stops not understanding what to do. "Its fine…" he tells her as he hides the rest of his words, I know you're scared, you can come close for now, "this much is fine."

I' will protect you, the words swirl in his mind, I won't go back on my promise, at least until I help her out of this place. He looks at Luca, her eyes glimmer as the red light hits her. Her smile radiates a warmth that Mun can describe, perhaps because no one other than children have ever looked at him that way.

Luca smiles as she closes the distance with Mun, she wants to hug him then and there but holds herself back, thinking, He'll get angry if I do that.

………………..

"How did you save me?" Luca asks Mun as they walk from corridor to corridor, her trembling stopped ever since she was allowed to be near him. Surely there is something about her voice, he thinks to himself, as Luca's gentle voice enters his mind.

"I don't know." He knows but refuses to admit it to her or to himself. The Transfer skill activated during their fall. To activate he needs to feel a strong sense of empathy for the person its healing. He doesn't want to admit that he cares for a woman, even if it was for a second. He doesn't want to trust a woman, they lie and like to to pull tricks, is what he tells himself despite knowing that it's not true. He knows his distrust is irrational, but he can't escape his own mind, his own fears of what happened to him.

"But…" he thinks to himself, "an exception?"

"No, they are all the same"

"Was Hope the same too. "

"She was an exception."

"Then why can't Luca be an exception?" He bickers to himself, trying to determine whether he should trust the lamia or not.

"What's that?" Luca asks, interrupting Muns thoughts, pointing above Mun's head.

Can she see my status too? Mun wonders as she stared at something with a look of confusion.

"What?" Mun asks wondering what the response can possibly be.

"that black stuff, its floating all over you" Luca tries to grab hold of the strange blackness, The darkness, like flowing water, escapes her grasp. The darkness whispers something to her before vanishing completely.

Luca tilts her head to one side. She hadn't seen darkness like that for a very long time, she had almost forgotten how real darkness looked like, but that was certainly true darkness.

"It's gone." She tells Mun, or did it hide somewhere? Luca Looks around, searching for the darkness but it's useless, she can't find it anywhere.

"Are you okay?" he asks, concerned for her sanity. Has she finally cracked? He asks himself.

"Um, yeah." The strange phenomenon made another phenomenon far more clear.

"Isn't it strangely quiet?" She tells Mun.

Mun understands what she means, they haven't seen a single monster since they woke up, even stranger is that they weren't attacked while unconscious. Where are the monsters? Luca told him that the Monsters go berserk this time of year, and yet not a single peep can be heard. No monsters, just the trickling water.

"The water." He says aloud, his mind grabbing hold of another peculiarity.

"Do you hear the water?"

Luca nods.

"it hasn't stopped," Mun says. The water's trickling sound hasn't gotten any further than when they woke up, but they've been walking for a while now, so why did the water sound so close?

5 secs remaining

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1…

Mun activates his status in hope that he'll find something strange with his surroundings, only to see information on the dungeon rock formations.

Type: Dungeon rock Rarity: Common Description: Dungeon rock, also known as Hell stone, is a type of rock of unknown origin with magical properties that cannot be tested or seen, only slightly felt.

I didn't know the rocks were unique types of stones. For now, let's follow the sound of the water.

The two follow the sound of water for only a few minutes before finding a large deposit of metal. Not just any metal but the metal Mun has been searching for.

There was so much of it that Mun felt like jumping in glee. I can sell this and buy Yeo, he thinks to himself.

He touches the metal in his hand and slowly begins to consume it. Luca stands nearby, looking in curiosity as the metal slowly sinks into Mun, some of it becomes a part of him but another part disappears into nowhere. Luca moves closer and closer, her curiosity wanting to know where it was going.

"What are you doing?" Mun asks as he gently pulls Luca of his hand, now an obsidian black. Luca grabs hold of his hand and pulls it closer to her face. She touches the metal palm, wow, she wanted to say, as she put her palm against his, astounded by how much it looked like a real hand.

"it looks like a real hand." She softly says as she looks up to see Mun looking back at her, his eyes are warm on her. she backs away, her face turning slightly red.

She looks at him again, his features are completely different. His eyes glowed a bright green, enchanting Luca with every second she felt there gaze upon her, his nose and cheeks have a warm feeling that she can't describe in words, she only knows that she likes gazing upon them.

"how?" She reached for his cheek but Mun stops her hand with his, softly gripping her wrist. He tries to hold back, but he still doesn't feel comfortable with being touched, it takes all his might to not yank her hand away from his.

"I know a lot of the human body," Mun responded as he moves her hand down and away from himself.

"let's go." Luca stays silent and closely follows him, staring at his back every time she felt scared of a noise or groan echo near them. It's odd, she ponders as she looks at her hand. His touch felt warm, but how is that possible?

…………….

Shortly after he collected the metal, monsters began to appear.

"Watch out!!" Luca yells as she grabs Mun by the waist with her tail, pulling him closer to her, just in time to avoid the troll's attack.

Its eyes glowed red, it was enraged. Mun had already torn its arm off but it continued to fight as if nothing had happened. The other two trolls are already closing in, Mun creates a tendril on his back, then another and another. He looks more monstrous then trolls at this point but Luca, instead of fear, feels a sense of pride.

The scariest monster is at my side, she thinks to herself, as Mun slices more of the troll's body parts. The metal has made him stronger, stronger than either of them expected.

The metal can cut through stone like an ax through wood, it isn't entirely easy but it's possible. Mun, being the clever person he is, isn't hammering sharp blades across their body, he is first tearing holes in their arms eventually wearing it down until he can chop their body in parts with a single slash. He doesn't give them any mercy. The unfortunate trolls or goblins that came close to Luca get the worst of it. Whenever one gets close to her, he grabs hold of them with his tendrils and sharpens to a fine edge before shredding them to pieces by sliding his sharpened tendrils across their body, almost mechanically, them into six even pieces. Even Luca jumps at the sight of them, whenever it happens, but instead of moving away from Mun, she slithers closer. at some point, without either of them realizing it, she had grabbed hold of his cloak, she holds it tightly as if it's her connection to Mun; as if as long as she's holding it, Mun will not abandon her.

The battle feel unending, Mun has already fought tens of monsters but even after all that, a monster is always around the next corner.

Luca closes her eyes, as she holds on to Muns cloak She tries to filter out all the noise, as she monitors Mun's heartbeat.

"There," Mun yells as he grabs Lucas hand and pulls her with him.

"It's okay!!" Luca yells, slightly embarrassed at her own uselessness. "I can do it myself." She tells Mun as she Begins to run alongside him, firmly grasping his hand.

The two run up the stairs as fast as they can, hearing the groans and wrathful cries of the monsters that followed them. They were all level 30 monsters, but somehow Mun had become strong enough to decimate them, but I don't want to fight them every single minute of every day, he tells himself as he continues to run up the stairs as fast he could, it doesn't take long for the two to reach the boss room.

Not a single monster guards the entrance when they get there. so he runs out of the boss room, making sure that Luca is still with him. He looks to her hand, his grip tightens, his hand making sure to not let her go

Why did I? he tries to loosen his grip but it doesn't budge. Fine!! he tells himself Putting it on the back of his mind, as he continues to run.

"Where to!!???" He yells, the monsters close behind, not taking a single break. Now, other monsters from the current floor began to chase after them.

Mun looks to his side. There is a troll running at him at full speed, alongside it, five goblins. Mun prepare a bladed tendril, he then hears a click and in the next moment a burst of fiery red. Mun stretches a part of his body to protect Luca from the oncoming flames.

Luca then pulls Mun to the left, corridor by corridor she pulls him in the right direction, she knows the place by heart, the traps that scared her, she'd never forgot where they were. She smiles, as the tears fall down her cheeks. Her pain had not been in vain, she thought.

Yes, she tells herself, I suffered for this moment so that I could meet Mun, so that I could help him, so that I could protect him from this place. She is being useful to him for the first time since she had met Mun.

Under Luca's guidance, it doesn't take long to find the third-floor stairway.

The two quickly run up the stairs into the 3rd-floor boss room.

"uhg hugh!!" Luca forgot how long it's been since she's run for so long.

As she gasps for air, The stone behind her begin to close shut, the trolls, spiders, goblins, reapers and other monsters try to get in, some are crushed in the attempt but soon enough of the noise died down, and now only a single golem remains at the center of the Room.

"I'll take care of this quick." Luca tries to keep Mun's hand in her grasp, as it leaves hers.

He's going to be far away again, but it's,

"Okay."