Late Afternoon - Early Spring : Above the Ocean

It had only been a few hours since I left home, but I was already lost.

-Am I going the right way?-

Before I left Bahamut, I asked a dragon I saw to point me in the direction of Siratha.

After a bit of hesitation, they pointed me in a direction but once I looked in the void, I didn't see any space runes even close to the direction they pointed.

The only thing I could really do was to simply fly in the general direction and hope to find something.

I had been flying over the ocean for a couple hours already, occasionally flying below the clouds and looking into the water but there was simply nothing.

-Hm?- Ilios had been asleep for most of the flight but suddenly he tried to grab my attention by tapping on my back.

Glancing back at him, I noticed he was trying to point me just slightly to the right.

Following his suggestion, I turned to the right a couple of degrees until he laid his head back down.

-What was that all about?- Deciding not to question it, I kicked up the thrusters and continued flying straight for another 30 minutes before finally seeing land crest the horizon.

-Damn.. it's about time..- Although I wasn't hauling it then entire way, I was by no means going slow.

Quickly coming up on the landmass, I noticed a small group of 3 people sitting outside of an unnatural-looking cave next to the beach.

I was originally going to simply continue flying over them, but I was a bit curious what the cave was. -I guess I can ask them where this is too..-

Turning a bit towards the ground I started slowing down and changed to my humanoid form.

Holding tightly onto Ilios, I braced for landing. "Welp.." -Im gonna hit the water..-

*CR-BANG*

As I landed, my feet plowed through a crashing wave and vaporized it.

As if the water wasn't even there, my feet slammed into the sand with some ridiculous force.

Letting Ilios down, I noticed there was a thick mist that filled the area from my landing.

Before I could walk out though, I heard a deep man's voice yell out in front of me. "SEA MONSTER!"

-Hm?-

*Fwoosh*

A meter long dart made of ice quickly zipped at my head but I casually dodged by tilting my head.

"Don't enter the mist! It's probably poison!"

"Keep back I'll barrage it with magic!" A woman's voice was next.

"Haah.." *Snap* With a snap of my fingers I completely dissipated the fog.

*Fw-w-w-woosh* A barrage of ice darts flew towards me with considerable force, but using just a bit of aura, I applied enough pressure to the darts that they practically turned to dust.

I silently stood there with a look of annoyance as a sparkly cloud of ice filled the air around me.

The people up the beach just stared at me while completely frozen.

They were all human except one female, mage elf.

"Kid, are you.. okay?" The youngest, innocent looking human girl looked at me with worried yet fearful eyes.

"Don't move!" The big burly man that yelled out earlier kept her from walking forward. "It's probably some unknown sea monster that is using illusion magic or something."

"That's definitely just a kid! He’s probably younger than me!" The girl spoke up again.

"Would a kid his age be able to make the entire dungeon shake, plus survive Sam's magic?!" He was pretty clearly agitated.

I just stood there and watched them make assumptions for a moment, it was pretty entertaining honestly.

"Kid, can you speak?" The nervous elf woman spoke with caution.

"Awe, I was hoping you guys were gonna keep making stupid assumptions." Brushing a bit of sand off my pants, I walked up towards them. "Sorry to intrude, Id just like-"

Out of nowhere, the big burly guy lunged at me with his shield in front of him.

*DIII-iing* *Cr-cr-cr-crunch*

My punch rang his shield like a gong and launched him up the beach and through the forest.

"How rude.."

The two other girls were frozen with pale faces.

"Ahem.. As I was saying, I just wanted to ask where this is. Do you guys know?"

The first to snap out of their fear enough to talk was the young girl. "T..this is the d..dungeon of Christopher.."

"That doesn't tell me anything.. What city am I closest to?"

"W..we are just south of Springarrow.." (NOT the capital)

The name didn't ring a bell at all. "What kingdom?"

"E..Elynnor.. sir.."

-Ah.. So I'm between the Main and Western continents..-

"I..is there anything else I can h..help you with sir?"

"Hmm.." -I should check out this dungeon since I'm here I guess..- Although I had learned of their existence long ago, I had never seen one. -This could be a good opportunity..- "So you said this was Christopher's dungeon?"

The girl had finally started to relax a bit seeing that I wasn't a threat but the elf was still staring at me, pale faced. "I..it's just called the Dungeon of Christopher. It was named after the S rank a..adventurer that discovered it."

"Hm.. interesting. So what rank are the monsters in it?"

"Well.. no one has ever gotten to the bottom of it and it's very old so likely peak S rank towards the bottom."

"So do all dungeons incrementally get stronger as they go down?"

"Y..yes.. in most cases at least." The girl still wore a nervous, forced smile.

"Interesting.." -I wonder what causes that..- "So why were you guys just sitting outside of it?"

"We were just going to camp out to let night pass and go in in the morning.."

Glancing over my shoulder I noticed the sun was setting. "Is there a reason to not go in at night?"

She gave an awkward look. "..Well.. dungeons are basically monsters.. and at night, they absorb the mana from the dead corpses inside.. if we were to kill something that had a mana core, we wouldn't be able to find and get it before the dungeon absorbed it.."

I looked back at her with wide eyes. Her statement piqued my curiosity. "Hmm, well. You seem like a good girl, Missy. What is your name?"

She immediately stiffened up. "It's.. Hannah.."

"Well then, Hannah. How would you like to come with me to the bottom of the dungeon in the morning?"

She immediately froze and broke into a cold sweat. "E..excuse m..me?"

"Well I need a local so I don't get lost." That wasn't true at all, the reason I wanted her to come was because I figured she'd be useful inside the dungeon. -Not like she needs to know that though..-

After a moment of thinking, she gave an extremely reluctant nod.

"S..sir!" Finally speaking up, the elf woman tried to get my attention.

"Yes?" I glanced back and looked her in the eyes.

My glare made her freeze up but she managed to shakily get out a question. "W..what about m..me.."

"Do whatever you want." With a light wave of my hand I created a small cushion and sat down.

Ilios quickly walked up and laid down next to me.

As I petted him, I thought of what to do to pass time. -Now.. what to practice until morning..-