First encounter

The monster wasn't the only one well prepared and battle ready. As soon as Iris took a glance on it, she charged right ahead followed by Julian and Lander. The monster stood in a rather large room at the end of this new trap corridor we went into. And since we could see how big the room was, we knew no other monster was in it.

Although what Iris hadn't thought about were other trap doors, where monsters could ambush us from. I just hoped this wouldn't be our doom, since my warning would come rather late now. Iris had already landed her first hit on the monster. The monster seemed to be quite overwhelmed by the sudden charge of three people. It tried its best to parry Iris with its giant club but speed wise it just couldn't keep up with Iris or either of the boys.

Sure, it managed to nearly land a big blow on Julian, but not that it mattered in the end. Julian avoided it barely and it left a wound on his right arm. However that was taken care of in an instant by Emilia's healing. Iris used the opening to give it a finished blow by decapitating its head. The head dropped to the ground and the rest of the monster followed soon after.

Iris put her sword back into its shaft; she was visibly excited. This had been her first monster kill.

Even though they all charged in bravely, once the monster fell they also sacked to the ground. Their charge had been way too irrational, we didn't even have time to check out what type of monster we were up against.

Oh yeah, Lisa gave us a sort of book with further details on the different kinds of monsters in this dungeon. Adventurers make those for all the different dungeons visited before by humans. There were even some illustration in it and by matching those with the monster we could acquire further insight on our foes. Although some stronger ones in the back only had a rather vague description. I surely didn't look forward to finding out more about those. There had to be a reason for the lack of information after all.

I opened the book as I happened to be the one carrying it. The others soon realized how hastily they had attacked once they saw the book. Our greatest advantage, aside from the one in numbers, was information. And we didn't make use of it.

It didn't take too long to find the right monster it happened to be on one of the first pages. It looked a lot like its illustration, a mix of a demon and a beast giving it more inhuman features like hooves and a nose of a cow. The bulging muscles and the evident angriness made it even more clear what exact monster we were facing.

The defeated monster was a and a lesser one at that. Lesser monsters were weaker version of regular monsters, easily differentiated by their size and the general atmosphere around the monsters. I can't really describe it, it's just something I felt when I saw it. I didn't know if the others had a similar experience and I was too afraid to ask. I wanted to avoid being the weird one of the group.

Even though the monster was a weaker one, it was still classified as a D rank monster. Its savage nature made it more dangerous than the regular versions of the monster. One on one it was a tough opponent even for experienced adventurers.

The others also took a look at the book, although none of them were quite as interested as myself. Iris had gone off to fetch the crystal from the beast in the meantime.

She stabbed a smaller knife into its chest and after a while of cutting around, she held the crystal in her hands. One could easily tell how inexperienced she was in that regard, blood and body innards of the beast hang from her hands. She gave of the look of a psychopath by sheer appearance alone.

Once she had cleaned herself to a certain degree, she handed me the crystal. Upon touching it, I could feel the faint energy coursing flowing within it. These crystal surely were something special. Humans used them to fuel all sort of celestial devices. Because of its lingering energy, the crystal itself could also be used as a weapon. Upon shattering the stored energy leads to an explosion. Even this rather small one would explode in a fancy manner, turning everything in a two meter radius to dust.

I stored it safely in the bag hanging from my waist. This one had also been gifted to me by Lisa. It looked only like a small bag but it could store quite a lot thanks to the refinement with celestial energy. Somehow I had ended up as the luggage girl in the party. Although I didn't mind it too much, I was happy to help in any way possible.

"I think we went kind of overboard against the poor guy and we rushed it way too much. To be honest, it was all my fault. I had been so excited to fight something that I blindly charged towards it. We shouldn't be this careless. Next time the opponent might be stronger and we could need more information."

Iris tried to find an excuse for her rash behaviour and didn't pay it any mind that most of us had just followed along. She wasn't the only excited one after all. Even I wasn't entirely faultless, I should have at least tried to stop them.

Now the boys also realised what could have gone wrong. We might have won our first fight but our recklessness might cost us a party member or two if things don't go as smoothly.

With that realization, we decided to end our adventure for today and headed back to the entrance.

On our way there we tried to push against the wall from time to time and just like I thought, other paths were also hidden behind those. With this knowledge we could enter one of them tomorrow to come across a new opponent sooner.

Once we finally exited the dungeon again, night had arrived already. We had forgotten to take some of the meat from the beast with us for dinner, so we had to live with what had been left over from the last couple days.

And I can tell you one thing: Not a whole lot was left and my stomach grumbling nearly kept me from sleeping.