Dungeon Menagerie 5 (Patreon)

Commissioned by InfiniteChaosRai

Dungeon Menagerie

Chapter 5

-VB-

“Mmm…”

It didn’t go away. 

“Mmm…!” 

It still didn’t go away. She turned away from the annoyance and hooked the quilt over her head. 

It got less annoying but didn’t go away. 

And then something grabbed her quilt and pulled it off of her.

The annoyance was back.

“Nooo…” she mumbled and then opened her eyes. 

Vanessa found herself blearily looking up at … Mori.

She stared at the not-bird for a bit before she let her head roll back onto the uncomfortable pillow. 

“Right,” she muttered. “I’m not on Earth anymore.”

She laid there for a while with Mori staring down at her. Then he cawed at her loudly. 

“What?!” she whined as she glared up at him.

He pointed out of the window with one of his wings. “Caw!” He sounded just like her mom. ‘It’s morning! Wake up, you good for nothing lazy bum daughter!’ 

Dad was the emotional pillar of the household, not mom. She was the slippers, the stick, and the paddle. 

She sighed as she got up. 

… Yeah, she wasn’t home anymore. She stared out of the window and looked down at the cobblestone streets below where people moved about. Some looked busy. Others lounged on doorsteps and leaned against walls as they watched the streets just like she did. No doubt everyone had troubles of their own.

She just … She just didn’t fee-.

“GACK!” she uttered in surprise and pain as something hit her and sent her sprawling back into the bed. She whipped around and glared at Mori. The bird somehow looked like he wasn’t having any of her internal monologue. “Why are you being so mean to me?!” she hissed. No, she did not whine. She hissed like a properly upset lady! 

Not whine. Never whine.

She sniffed. 

“Fine,” she grumbled as she got out of the bed. Mori just crowed in victory.

She headbutted his beak in retaliation.

It only hurt her.

-VB-

She walked out of the inn she’d stayed for the night and looked down at the small pouch.

The pouch had been a gift from the Guild after I sold the magic stones from the monsters Mori killed. 

… If I remembered correctly, the guild clerk told me that while the guild legally did not purchase magic stones and materials from adventurers without falna or familia, there were simply too many people who tried their luck and came out fine. And as someone with a monster pet, I was given an exemption based on “merit.” 

Merit her ass-.

But unlike regular adventurers and their familias, people like her had to pay double the amount of tax. Supposedly, this was to discourage them from continuing to dive into the Dungeon without a proper falna and familia.

“Mori,” she spoke up. “Should we join a Familia?” she asked Mori carefully.

Mori slowly looked at her with … how did a bird show off disdain like he did? Just the right about of opening to his beak, the lower beak pulled back lightly, his feathers all raised, and arms raised like he was about to come into contact with something utterly disgusting. 

She giggled. She supposed that was a no, then, huh?

“Then we’ll just have to keep working hard by ourselves, huh? You killing with your … ropes. Me with a rusty knife.” She paused. “I should get a good knife. It’ll make my job easier. Maybe you want armor, too?”

He shook his head. Well, that was an idea objection if she saw one. 

“Then let’s go shopping~!”

Even if it was for a knife and not a cute dress.

Mori cawed in dismay, probably at the thought of having to mingle with more people. He really wasn’t a people person. Bird. Whatever.

Mori was Mori, a calm-ish and angry judging bird. Who can also be very violent, though he knows when to use that violence.

-VB-

Their second dive into the Dungeon happened after breakfast. 

Cheap sandwich was cheap, but it was still food that matched the tastebuds and needs of adventurers: salty, meaty, rich, and heavy.

‘I’m going to get fat if I keep eating like that,’ she thought in dismay as she watched as Mori went up ahead by himself and hung all of the goblins that rushed at him using those ropes that just manifested out of nowhere. The same ropes would disappear after his victims died, which left her a trail of easy to follow line of kills to harvest magic stones from.

Vanessa winced as blood sprayed from a particularly large artery as she cut into another goblin. As her tired fingers dug around the innards of the monster to find the magic stone as her eyes remained glued on her friend. 

He was very enthusiastic about killing monsters in the Dungeon. Did he feel something, like a need, to kill them? Was that one of the reasons why he led her into the Dungeon? Solve his problem and hers at the same time? 

She winced as a spray of blood splattered onto her face. “Ugh,” she mumbled. She didn’t bother to clean it, because she was going to get sprayed by blood again anyways. She looked down at the floor of the Dungeon and saw at least two dozen goblins she had to butcher. “This is horrible.”

She was raised like a princess by her parents! 

And now, she was here, working the land with her dainty fingers! They would be horrified! 

When they weren’t being pesky about when she was getting married. 

… Oh God, she was going to have to find a man here.

“... But I don’t know anyone here,” she grumbled. And then she froze. “Wait, don’t people in like medieval times marry young? Am I already too old? Am I already a hag?!” 

“Caw!” 

She looked back to Mori and saw him “frowning” at her. 

“What?! I’m thinking about my prospects! It’s important!” 

He shook his head and went back to killing goblins.

“Why are you so mean to me, Mori?!” she whined.