The rest of the group approached, and I soon felt several envious looks on our faces. The curator, serious, announced that it was time to enter the dungeon. Mika grabbed my hand firmly, and together we headed towards the huge gate that separated us from the unknown. As we walked, I could feel through my "body control" the accelerated rhythm of her heart, as if the anxiety was beating as strongly as my own.
"Are you worried?" I asked in a whisper, my voice coming out lower than I had expected. The hesitation was impossible to disguise.
She took a second to answer, as if she was choosing her words carefully.
"A little..." she admitted, and even though she tried to keep her composure, the tension in her shoulders and the way she looked away said more than she let on.
I let out a small, almost automatic smile - an awkward attempt to lighten the weight in the air.
"So... did you learn anything interesting?" I tried to change the subject, to give her something to build on.
She seemed to think for a moment, then puffed out her chest, trying to sound more confident than she really was.
"Yes, I did! Now I can throw ice balls... and even create icy walls!" she said, with a forced glint in her eyes. But I knew her too well not to notice: that confidence was just a thin, almost transparent layer.
I know that "Wall of Ice" is a medium-level magic, nothing spectacular. In my group, some have mastered much more advanced spells, but I know she's never liked boring things like study and theory. So I bet she found it a bit dull. Even so, of course I'm going to compliment her - I'm not going to get burned by that look in her eye, which can bore holes in you.
"Wow, you're such a smart girl!" I said with a smile, giving her a gentle pat on the head.
Mika grimaced, pretending to be offended, puffing out her cheeks as she did when she wanted to look serious - but then smiled, clearly proud of the compliment.
"I'm a child to you, am I?" she asked, squinting her eyes, although her expression was more amused than accusing. "Although... that's fine. You can complement and caress me all you want."
I let out a short laugh. She was like that - unpredictable and sweet at the same time. We continued walking hand in hand and soon passed through the gate.
On the other side, we were greeted by a completely surreal landscape. Behind us, a hill gently undulated, covered in red grass that seemed to pulsate with a faint luminescence, as if it were breathing beneath our feet. But what really caused discomfort was the sky - or rather, the lack of it. A dark abyss stretched out above us, with no stars, no clouds... just darkness. I felt goosebumps rise on my skin, as if something up there was watching us, silently.
The soft glow of the grass gave the atmosphere a bizarre contrast - comforting and threatening at the same time.
Near the portal, something moved slowly, catching our attention. It was a gigantic turtle, the size of a small house, with rocky slabs covering its entire body. Each step was slow but steady. Mika's eyes widened in excitement:
"Wow! That's the Lower Armored Turtle! It attacks with stone spines and uses an earth wall as a defense. It's not aggressive, it's herbivorous... it feeds on mineral mosses and plants with a high silica content..." she said almost breathlessly, as if she were reciting something straight out of a book.
I stared at her, surprised. Not just by the amount of information, but by the enchanted way she spoke.
"Did you memorize all that?"
"Of course!" she replied, smiling as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "I thought this monster was cute and I wanted to know all about it!"
I smiled and shook my head.
"You still say you don't like studying..."
She blushed and crossed her arms, pretending to look away. But I saw the little smile in her corner.
Well... Mika is interested in biology. There's nothing that can be done about that.
New world, new species - and she was already mentally cataloging everything she saw, as if she were a researcher on a scientific expedition. Probably, instead of devouring grimoires or incantation manuals like everyone else, she had spent the last few days immersed in bestiaries. That makes sense. That enthusiasm in her eyes wasn't something you learned - it was pure instinct. And maybe I should do the same... learning more about the creatures that inhabit this world could save our lives one day.
I looked at the turtle again. Its shell looked completely indestructible - a walking fortress. But I found myself smiling at a memory that came out of nowhere:
"There's nothing that can't be cut!" said Sensei, that crazy old man. He said this with a twinkle in his eye, before raising his sword with absurd calm... and, in the next instant, cutting such a creature in half as if it were paper.
Then he laughed out loud, like a maniac, and called everyone over for turtle soup.
"It was good soup, by the way," I muttered to myself, without thinking.
On our side, the group remained attentive, but many looked at the turtle curiously. Mika was still watching it, enchanted, as if it were a living jewel.
By the way, we were informed before we entered that mana cores - those crystals inside monsters - sometimes contain something more valuable than raw power. On rare occasions, stigmata can appear: small runic hexes, which carry permanent improvements to our characteristics or even skill runes.
But in the case of this turtle... the most there could be is a white stigma. The weakest of all. And even then, with very slim chances. Nothing worth the risk of trying to cut down a beast with a wall on its back - not yet.
Even so... I couldn't stop staring at that hull. One day, perhaps.
The curator watched Mika with that smile in his corner that looked like a compliment, but carried something calculating behind it. He listened attentively as she explained everything about the Under Armored Turtle - as if he had already memorized the creature's data sheet from a textbook - and then he asked the question, direct and cold:
"What's the best way to kill it?"
Mika, without hesitation, answered with that practical tone she used when she was explaining things she loved, as if she were giving a lesson:
"It's shell can only be penetrated by high-level spells, so the easiest way would be to freeze or burn it. You can quickly heat and cool the shell, causing it to crack, and finish it off with a physical attack."
The healer nodded, satisfied. Apparently, that was exactly the answer he wanted to hear.
"Then let Erwin heat the shell with a Fire Blast, you cool the turtle with a Cold Ball... and then this one" he pointed at me with his chin, like someone picking a tool off a workbench. "Let him finish."
He looked at me as if I were a sharp sword hanging on the wall. No name. No context. Just a tool.
For some reason, at that moment, I didn't like him anymore.
Maybe it was the way he pointed at me, as if my job was just to cut, as if my will didn't matter. Maybe it was the way he used Mika - her sweet, animated voice - as a combat strategy. Or maybe I was just tired of being treated as something useful instead of someone.
All I know is that my hand closed tighter on the hilt of the sword. And, for a moment, I wished that hoof really was impossible to cut. Just to prove a point.
Erwin - the yellow-haired boy - nodded seriously, put his hands in front of his body and closed his eyes, muttering something in a language I couldn't fully understand, but which seemed to vibrate in the air as if it had weight. I watched, trying to imagine which runes might be active at that moment: something like "basic fire","continuous flow", perhaps "projection in a line"? He seemed calm, but the mana around him was stirring as if it were boiling.