New Lifestyle 2

Leonard reminisced, a year and a half ago he came to this dungeon, it was an event that he didn't know would happen.

Now he is thirteen. Back then he would worry about the story, now he became a local of the world his fate is yet to be aligned, so everywhere he goes chaos follows.

Chaos, however, is not bad as it sounds. He was able to save his younger sister, learn that the roots of black magic are prevalent within the Empire, and his relationship with the female leads.

Lenneza became a reliable elder sister, and Yula became more powerfully independent. And he, who is not bound by the role of a punching bag.

Thanks to those changes he realised once again that the demon king is dead, not aware of the conversation he had with Yuri, he is no longer bound to that fate.

"Hey, Leo."

Jai's voice came from below him. They're inside the hut and the only place Jai could sleep was on the wooden floor of it, beside Leonard's hammock.

"Yeah?"

"Do you think we would be successful with the subjugation?"

Leonard didn't answer movement stopped from the hammock, Jai looked at him and shook her head, what was she thinking, the subjugation is tomorrow, that was their agreement.

"Leo I—"

But before she could talk her nose was pinched, Jai was surprised and looked at the perpetrator. Leonard was hanging from the hammock, looking down at her.

"You shouldn't say ominous things, Jai."

"Sorry…"

Leonard then poked her forehead. Jai tilted her head as she looked at Leonard.

"We're going to win and get that Centipede okay?"

Jai couldn't help but look at Leonard, his smiling face is not attractive to Jakari's standards, but that's only when in a group. Jai was isolated from others and is with Leonard right now, she spent more time with him rather than with her race.

For her, Leonard's face was very alluring, and she slowly nodded her head, just a year ago, Jai was sure that Leonard was smaller than her.

But now? He was taller, and he is still growing. Jai couldn't help but grumble, she liked teasing Leonard as much as he teased her. But now she lost an advantage over him.

"I could tell you're frustrated."

"E-eh? No, I'm not, just sleep now since you get tired easily!"

"What flimsy excuse is that?"

Leonard poked her cheek, Jai couldn't help but turn her head away. Leonard couldn't help but smirk but stopped nonetheless and laid his back on the hammock.

"Tomorrow we'll be able to hunt that Centipede…." Jai turned her head to look at Leonard "Because I believe in you."

Leonard heard a sudden twitch from Jai, he was smiling, and he knew that Jai is probably having her head steaming right now. But he didn't dare look, a young lady has her worries.

When Jai was about to respond, she stopped as she heard Leonard's even breathing, he was already in dreamland, it made Jai pout but slept anyways.

The next day when the glow of the dungeon is at its highest, Leonard woke up along with Jai.

"Are you ready to hunt a razor centipede?"

"Yep!"

Jai enthusiastically answered, Leonard smiled as he carried all the luggage he needed. Camping gear, tools for maintenance of his magical gear, and some processing materials.

They were ready to set out.

They began to walk towards their destination, the dungeon ceiling is about 20-50km high depending on the region, right now they're in a forest in which trees grew about 1km to 2km High. It's called the High Bark Region by the locals.

The amount of danger within the forest is high compared to its outskirts in which the locals live. However, venturing inside the forest could give very good rewards in the name of high risk.

There is the mana dew which is the key component of purple elixir, various herbs that could cure specific diseases, and monster parts that could be used for crafting.

And one area of the High Bark Region is a plateau which contains dangerous ecology. This plateau is dry and humid, black trees which grew only up to 40 metres are tougher than alloys created by man but brittle to the extreme like fibreglass. It has no leaf but grew vines and its fruit are to die for.

The ground which is composed of black dirt is so fertile that if found by human settlers it would be enough to feed them for years isolated without fertilisers needed.

Monsters that live in the area are so strong that scales are like nuclear waste containers; indestructible. They're heavily immune to fire, their flesh is stronger than enchanted leather and parts that are supposed to be soft are harder than metal.

In such a place, lives a very rare specimen, dubbed the Razor centipede. Sharp legs, pincers and a hard exoskeleton. Such a monster would only be born and die at its juvenile age. But this one managed to live till its adulthood.

It was 20 metres in length and 4 metres wide, 7 if legs are splayed out, and it has the intelligence of a man. It cannot speak, but it is cunning.

Leonard knew this information first-hand, every 20 years an adult Razor centipede is hunted. The population of juvenile Razor centipedes is in the thousands, but adult Razor centipedes can be counted by one hand.

Female juvenile Razor centipedes can lay eggs unlike males, which need to be full-grown adults before fertilising the eggs. So most of the time all adult Razor centipedes are male.

Which makes the hunt harder as they are aggressive once provoked. This behaviour led to the fact that adult female Razor Centipedes are larger than the males, and have more absurd behaviour than their male counterparts. They eat the male Razor centipedes.

For that, only a few adult Female Razor centipedes have ever existed in the past century.

That information is what Jai had managed to collect so far, and thanks to that Leonard prepared ample preparation.

"How long before we get there?"

"About a few hours."

Leonard asked as they were walking under the roots of the massive trees they were traversing in. For an ordinary man this terrain in hell, thankfully Leonard knows a lot of movement techniques and that's not involving the Shadow techniques.

Jai, on the other hand, is hopping around like she's on a picnic. Leonard couldn't even see a single sweat on Jai which made him quite envious of her physique.

"Why are you staring at me like that?"

Leonard shook his head, he was staring way too much.

"Nothing, it's just because you're cute."

"Hey! No flirting!"

"I'm complimenting, not flirting, you adorable jakari."

"W-wha!"

"Look forward to when you're walking in the forest."

Leonard could barely contain his amusement as his lips tug up at his reaction to Jai, it was always like this, him teasing her and her shutting up from blushing. Right now her ears are red.

Leonard had the urge to tease further but held it in, they need to be serious when they move forward.

–grumble~

Leonard looked at Jai, who was the origin of the sound, and Jai became even redder. Leonard chuckled.

"Jai, how about we camp here for a moment?"

Jai just nodded silently, after that, I scoured the ground for an even yet secluded place, we don't want some monster to prey on us while we seek comfort.

After that Leonard set up a simple camp, a fire pit and some food he stored. He set up some wards to fend off monsters and started cooking.

He made a cooler to store meat and other things with bad shelf life. Here he took out the meat and some vegetables.

"Any suggestions on what I should make?"

"... A leek soup."

"Alright then."

Leonard kept himself busy, and of course, while there are wards erected, Jai didn't let a moment of her focus be off. She still kept her eyes out for potential dangers while waiting for Leonard to finish cooking.

She has been with Leonard for a year, yet she always gets this embarrassed when she's with her. She has this desire in which she wanted him all by herself.

Even though she knows she and Leonard are the only ones in touch with each other under the dungeon.

She's confused. She doesn't know what this feeling meant, and it gets worse whenever Leonard hugs her. Her emotion of happiness is always laid with obsession.

Everytime he smiles Jai's heart races, when he hugs her she feels comfort and warmth, she wants to see more, feel more!

So she's going to stay with Leonard, until she figures out what this emotion is, she wants to feel it more with Leonard. Does he feel the same too? She sometimes asks herself.

She wanted to know what kind of thoughts he had about her. Whenever she looks at Leonard, Jai could only see amusement, contentment, joy and finally, warmth.

Of course she feels the same. However, by feeling, she wants more than that. And she wondered why.