Chapter 29 – Entering the Mine

‘Ember.’

Roland held out his hand in front of a bundle of sticks that were gathered in one place. He was a mage without elemental affinities but he could still learn this spell. It used friction instead of fire to ignite. The sticks went up in flames and Roland’s new half-gnome companion tossed a few more in.

The expedition had stopped for the night and they decided to camp out in the wilderness. They would make it to their destination in half a day’s time tomorrow. The leader had decided that it was too dangerous to wander during the night. Making a camp and having people take turns watching would be the best option.

Roland and Helci were voted to be the first ones with guard duty. The girl was selected because she was a scout and also a newbie, Roland was also forced here due to his young age. He was now sitting opposite to the short girl with orange hair.

“Did you cut your hair?”

Roland asked while tossing some more wood into the pile. It was quite chilly here and even while wearing this long robe he was feeling cold.

“Ah, yes.”

The girl nodded, she did have longer hair when Roland had saved her that fateful day. After she gained some experience she decided to cut it short as it was a liability during fights.

“Good…”

Roland felt like the two got off on the wrong foot the first time they met. He also felt like that as the adult here he should offer her the olive branch. The problem was that he didn’t really know how to talk to sixteen-year-old girls, even fewer ones that were from this word and a gnome.

“Thank you…”

“Huh?”

“You know… for saving me…”

The girl finally managed to gather up her courage to apologize. She had her head turned the other side while twiddling her thumbs. Her voice faint and quiet as Roland barely heard it. After going through the adventurer’s lifestyle the half-gnome did have a lot of time to think about her past actions.

“Sure, no problem. Also sorry for shouting at you back then.”

“No it’s fine… you were right I was unprepared…”

The two somehow managed to bury the hatchet so Roland moved on from this uncomfortable topic and shifted it to another. The two started talking about the adventurer life, Hilci also wanted to know how Roland was able to get his adventurer rank at such a young age. He just lied and told her that he was lucky enough to get a mage class which let him join adventurer parties at a dungeon.

The night went by slowly, there wasn’t much to do but talk so they slowly got to know each other. Hilci told him about what she was up to after she got rescued and Roland gave her a recap of his adventurer life back in Carwen.

“Come to think of it, it would probably be better for you to go to a city with a dungeon than to stay here if you want to level up.”

“I also had trouble working by myself back then, I was lucky enough to find a good party…”

He gave her his opinion, if she really wanted to level up going to a city with a dungeon would probably be faster. Still, going on simple escort missions was probably safer as you never knew what could appear in a dungeon. Sometimes some rare monster variants appeared on the top levels that could easily kill the low-level adventurers. In contrast, bandits and the surface level monsters were a lot easier to handle.

“You think so?”

The small girl crossed her arms together and moved her head down. She started thinking about something and went quiet. Roland went on with more advice hoping that it would be at least somewhat helpful.

“You could also try finding some bronze adventurers there and practice on the easier levels.”

“You sound really knowledgeable for your age… are you really a human kid or just a large halfling in disguise?”

The girl narrowed her eyes while looking at Roland that wasn’t behaving for his age. She even expected him to act more bashful with such beauty as herself. But there he was talking normally and just acting like some kind of mentor figure. He never even tried to sneak a peek at her figure like all the other male adventurers. He looked to be thirteen so he should have been at that age, this was a hit to her femininity.

“Halflings are only a meter tall…”

“Then a giant Halfling! You might be really old!”

“Stop talking nonsense. How would a giant and halfling even copulate?”

There was an actual giant race in this world but they were various types ranging from 3-4 meters all the way up to a staggering number.

“See that! That’s not how a brat talks!”

“Oh? Would brat act more like you then?”

“Yes more like m… hey!”

Roland laughed a bit while the half gnome girl stared him down. She even threw one of the smaller sticks at him which he caught with his hand and just threw back at her. Before a stick fight could break out another person walked over. This was someone from the other teams to switch them out.

Roland didn’t remain there for long and headed back to the tent that the rest of their party members were sleeping in. This was probably the worst part of this journey, sleeping in a small tent with four other people.

“Ugh… that’s why dwarves are…”

Helci complained as even before they could enter the tent they could hear loud snoring. The dwarf being a dwarf had drunk himself to sleep. This also caused him to snore like a bear, the half gnome girl never liked sleeping next to guys for this reason. At least in her old party, there was another girl and she sometimes got to sleep in a tent with her without the other companions.

“I’m surprised that those other two are managing…”

Roland commented as Orson and Selanar were fast asleep. Though the Elf had an awkward sitting up straight position and looked to be awake. The human on the other hand was similarly snoring as Dalrak the dwarf. They probably both drunk themselves to sleep while the elf might have used some sleeping aids.

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The two walked in, they only had some crude blankets and hard pillows provided by the people from the expedition. Helci curled up to the side far away from the other three males and tried to sleep but the snoring was just too loud. She then noticed someone wiggling over towards her which was Roland wrapped up in a blanket.

“Hey! What are you doing? Go back you pervert!”

The half gnome was surprised that the youth that didn’t show interest in her looks had come over. Was he actually keeping it in but was in reality a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

“Pervert? The hell? Just be quiet.”

He started murmuring something to himself and after a while a little flash of light occurred. Surprisingly Helci couldn’t hear the snoring of the two other men now. She glanced at Roland that had an unimpressed judgy expression on his face.

“Hush spell, it places a small dome that keeps sounds outside, best used against snoring drunkards.”