[ Chapter One - A Tart ]

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The [h/c]nette ran through the dark halls of the dungeon, the adrenaline being the only thing keeping their scraggy body from passing out.

The men's shouts from behind them were getting louder and louder, making their breath catch in their throat, while they tried to hurry and find a place where to hide.

They knew this place was filled with criminals who no longer had a place outside the dungeons, but yet they couldn't help but angry one group of them by one of their snarky remarks when they were about to get robbed. Well.. at first they just told them to give the money to them.

"Do I look like a charity to you? Go earn your own money, legally."

After their comment, they used a stunning spell with the help of the little mana they had left, and took advantage of the situation to flee.

Yet, they caught up to them. Their breathing was rapid, their vision was blurrying as they felt that they might pass out anytime soon from the running.

They were surprised they were still able to keep running, perhaps it was the adrenaline.

When they turned around the corner in one of the hallways, they noticed they were in a dead end.

'Crap-!' They cursed to themselves, running up to the wall, punching into it, hoping to find any hidden button.

Before they could punch the wall any further, it suddenly descended, allowing them to run past.

Once they ran past where the wall was previously, they heard a loud thud behind them. When they turned around, the wall was right back there. For a second, they just questioned their own sanity, and then came up with the conclusion this might be a normal thing here in the dungeon.

Finally, after minutes of running, their knees gave up, as they fell to the floor. They crawled closer to the wall, leaning their back against it as they let their eyelids close in relief.

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After few minutes, their eyes opened up again, but they were in a different place than before. Their senses were working, but their body was too weak to even move.

Right in front them sat a man that was.. cooking something? He didn't look like a tall-man as he had horns sticking out of his straw hat. Maybe.. an orc? Their eyes widened, and in reflex they grabbed for their staff in fear of being the orc's dinner.

When they couldn't feel it anywhere near them, they panicked, catching the man's attention.

"Woah, calm down there kid, you're safe." The man said with his hands in front of him, walking closer to the young child. They still glanced at him skeptically, making him let out a sigh.

"I found ya outside of my base, leaning against a wall passed out. I took you in and gave you food, all scared that you might die based on what state you were in. When was the last time you had an actual meal?" The man asked, looking at them while he scratched his long beard.

They stayed silent. At that, the man simply answered himself in his mind. "While you were asleep for three days, I kept feeding you food that you unconsciously ate. So prepare yourself if you might feel nauseous.

That'll be your body rejecting the food after you haven't eaten for so long." He warned.

At mention of that, they suddenly took note of the sickening feeling in their stomach and the headache, making them grab onto the nearest thing to them and throw up into it.

The man looked at them nervously, walking closer to them while patting their back. "There, there.." he mumbled, while letting the person cough. He then offered them a glass of water that they gladly accepted.

"..Thank.. you.." they coughed out, slowly drinking the water as the sharp pain in their throat weakened.

"The name's Senshi. I'm a dwarf. And who are you little one?" He asked as he crouched down.

"... [Y/n].. [Y/n] [L/n].." they mumbled. The man nodded in response. "Alright. Mind tellin' me what happened?" He asked them once again, making them look down at the floor.

The second floor. Here, strange vistas strech before them, unlike the village's musty catacombs on the first floor. Scholars say this is the tallest tower of the Golden Castle, stretching up from down below..

"These trees are so tall and I always wondered, how come they don't poke through to the surface?" Chilchuck questioned as he pointed up to the sky, making all of our heads turn that way.

"Maybe.. the curse on this place won't let 'em." Laios responded hesitantly, not being so sure himself.

Then right in front of you, Marcille tripped on one the planks, falling onto her knees making you gasp in surprise. "You okay there, Marcille?"

"Yeah, my foot got stuck on a plank." She said sheepishly, staring at her foot. Laios then offered her his hand, which she took in hers and he helped her stand up.

"We've been walking for a while now, we should rest. Let's find a place to set up camp and get some sleep." Laios said to which you all agreed.

After that, Laios and Chilchuck walked ahead of you, reminiscing their adventuring, while you and Marcille had your own conversation walking behind them.

"I can do some simple spells like healing and water-walking, nothing much.." you told Marcille who nodded.

"That's impressive enough! You have multiple qualities already, such as sword fighting, archery and even cooking!"

"Maybe, but i'm not that good in any of them.." When you said that, Marcille was ready to argue with you that it's still something to be proud of, but her rumbling stomach interrupted her, as she turned to look on other side, her face flushed red.

"Are you hungry? I got some of that scorpion broth from lunch if you want." Senshi joined the conversation, holding up a bag of the said food.

"No thanks..." Marcille muttered out, quick to dismiss his offer. "I have some vegetable soup if you wa-" "Oh, I know. We should hunt us a monster for our dinner." Laios suggested, interrupting you before you could finish your sentence, making Marcille groan. At that, Laios turned around to face her with a smile. "What would you like to eat instead then?" Marcille looked up at him confused.

"If you're craving something, I'll try making that."

"That's nice of you to offer, but.. it's gonna have a monster in it, right?" When Laios stayed silent, she lowered her head and let out a sigh.

"As long as it's edible, i'm fine with whatever..." even though Marcille said that, she dismissed everything Laios suggested. And no wonder... if you were in her place, you'd skip these meals and stay hungry rather than eat... metal, or a goblin.

"Oh my god, first, you say "I'm fine with anything", then hate whatever we suggest. You're that type." Chilchuck said annoyed with how picky she was, making you look to the side, silently agreeing with Marcille.

"What? I just don't want to eat gross things!" Marcille exclaimed. "There are normal animals here, but they're docile. We'd have to set traps and wait. A duck isn't gonna walk by carrying a green onion.." Laios pointed out, making Marcille turn to look over her shoulder in dissapointment. "I know... you have a point."

"But! This is a dungeon! So it might have dire ducks with man-eating green onions! Now, there's something funny and tasty."

"I don't share your optimism for it..." Marcille mumbled, dissapointing Laios.

"Well, this time of year, there's plenty of nuts and fruits around." Senshi said, raising Marcille's hopes.

"What? There are?"

"Mh-mm." Senshi responded to her question with a thumbs up.

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"A-ha! A Man-eating Fruit Plant! I should have known!" Marcille shouted out, pointing her finger at one of the flowers accusingly.

"Actually, 'Man-eating' is just a general term for it." Laios corrected her, before looking around the flowers and then pointing at one of them. "See that flower? It's formal name is Baraselia. And it grows along trails animals use. It produces fluid strands, like spider silk, and when a creature touches it.." Laios stopped, letting our minds to think of what presumably happens.

"It can't digest anything, so it doesn't eat the things it catches. It uses them for fertilizer." Laios finished, making you stare at him with your mouth wide agape at how informed he was.

It was no secret he was a monster maniac, but hearing him talk about a monster so confidently made you admire him in the back of your mind.

"It can use a human fertilizer too, then?" Marcille asked, hesitant.

"You know the vegetables you have no problem eating? Those grow in soil, fertilized by animal corpses and poop." Laios told her, confusing Marcille.

"Right. But I don't have a problem eating those."

"Don't freak out, we're on the second floor. A corpse retriever would've come and picked up any dead bodies by now. They check these plants all the time. This ain't the lower floors, so there's no way someone was left here for a fertilizer." Chilchuck told Marcille, in hopes for her to relax a bit.

'Don't jinx it..' you thought in your mind at Chilchuck's comment, looking around the place at the 'man-eating' flowers skeptically.

"I don't know.." Marcille mumbled, staring at the flowers herself.

"Sneaking up to pick one will be tough." Laios pointed out, making Senshi pick up his axe. "Alright. Then we fight it." He said confidently, both of them prepared.

Marcille let out a sigh, holding out her hand to the side. "Step aside. I can destroy them all with one spell." Marcille said proudly, walking past Senshi and Laios whispering a spell.

"Sperae Yeptum Rufermus... alamandras proju, nexant Aslam!" Marcille was ready to attack the flower with her staff, before getting interrupted by Senshi's shouts.

"Stop that, you idiot!" Senshi shouted, his face scrunched up in anger. When you noticed this, you took a step away from him in fear. It was rare to see him pissed, and when he was, you didn't want to be around to witness it. Speaking from four year experience.

"What? Why?" Marcille exclaimed confused, turning around to face him, not noticing the plant that was ready to attack her. The plant wrapped it's stems around her body, making her hang upside down while she screamed.

"Do you want to destroy all the fruit too? There's an ironclad rule here. Take only what you can eat." Senshi lectured her while she got tossed in the air upside down, screaming for her life.

"Lecturing is useless in this situation, Senshi. We gotta help her." You told the dwarf, bringing out your sword.

"No, no, no, let go!" Marcille panicked in the air, getting pressed against one of the flowers, making it spit out a corpse.

Marcille let out a startled scream, while you scrunched your face in disgust at the sight, turning around to face the half-foot. "Guess you jinxed it.." you mumbled, while he scratched the back of his head.

" 'It can't digest anything', huh?! It's totally digesting him!" Marcille screamed at the top of her lungs, while you and the rest of the party members observed the dead body.

"What? Oh, well. Some have digestive tracts. It depends on the species." Laios said once he turned around to face her, making her stay silent.

"By the way, the species that has you is parasitic, it plants it's seed under your skin." Laios pointed out, making you sweatdrop.

"Maybe you should keep that to yourself next time, Laios..." you mumbled out as Laios turned around to look at you, confused.

"You're not helping!" Marcille screamed out in panic.

"Stay as still as you can." Laios said as he drew out his sword, ready to attack.

"These plant-type monsters have lots of limbs, if I took 'em on one at a time, we'd be here all day. I only have to attack one spot. It's root." Once Laios finished saying that, within the blink of an eye he slashed the flower across it's root, making Marcille fly in the air.

Once you noticed that, you quickly positioned yourself under her, so that she fell right into your arms. "Got'cha." You said, while her hold tightened, like she was holding onto you for dear life.

In the next second, her staff dropped onto your head, making you whimper at the contact and the sudden sharp pain. "Ughh.." you mumbled, rubbing the spot where the stick landed.

Once you helped her back on her feet, she thanked you and then Laios walked up to the two of you.

"How was it?" He focused his attention on Marcille, confusing her. "Huh?"

"Like I said before, this species leaves it's seeds under your skin, it's called a Shadowtail. Unlike the Baraselia type that squeezes you till your bones break, this type needs to keep whatever it traps within it's traps alive."

"It squeezes it's prey just enough do it can't escape, but it's relatively comfortable in it's clutches. Which could feel kind of cozy. Did it?" Laios looked up at Marcille with an excited look, while she just gave him a silent glare in return, weirded out.

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Once you found a perfect hollow tree where the five of you could set a camp, you immediately placed all of the ingredients on the floor and started to prepare for cooking.

You stood before Senshi as he started to light up the fire. He then turned around to look at you. "[Y/n], would you mind cooking up somethin' for today?" Senshi asked you, catching the other's attention while surprising you.

"Me?? But, I'm not that good at cooking like you are, I might mess up-" "Nonsense! I've tried few of your cookings and they were delish, plus, vegetables and fruit are your speciality." Senshi pointed out, making you sigh in defeat.

"Alright, alright. I'll try. But do not throw me out of this tree if it isn't anything good.." you muttered out, and then grabbed the fruit and placed it on the boiling pot.

"First, a light steaming. Good." Senshi described your moves, as you tried to ignore him, focusing on the food you are making.

"I thought we could make that tart you once made back then." You turned around to face Senshi, as he gave you thumbs up. "Good thinking."

You brought the fruit boiled fruit on a table, cutting the top of it, around the stem.

"Give a little twist and pull, and the seeds will come right out." Senshi said as you did the exact thing he instructed.

You then looked behind you and got surprised by Laios admiring you as you cooked. Your cheeks then turned red in embarassment as you then placed the seeds on the side. Laios grabbed those seeds to inspect them, making Marcille stare at him with suspicion.

"Next, you peel the skin off and pound it till it's nice and soft. Then line the bottom of the pan with it." You patted it, trailing your finger along the uneven places, trying to make it as smooth as you could, even though it had no impact on how the cooking would taste.

"Senshi, can I have your scorpion broth?" You turned around to face him, as he quickly gave you the bag of the left overs of the broth from today.

"Give the unripe fruit a good mashing, add a dash of Slime and... a bit of vegetable broth and mix it till it's good and thick." Senshi said, a little bit surprised that you chose to add the vegetable broth instead of the scorpion since you asked him for it.

"Once it's got a smooth consistency, pour in the rest of the vegetable broth and a handful of the chopped fruit. Mix it up a little bit and pour it into the frying pan."

You then watched it patiently while Senshi sat beside you, Chilchuck watching it from your other side while drinking a tea from his mug.

You heard Laios and Marcille bickering in the background, making you turn around to see what the commotion was about. Marcille was trying to reach for something that Laios was holding, possibly the seeds that Laios grabbed from you before.

You smiled at them bickering like siblings, turning around to watch how the tart was doing.

You noticed it was bubbling, so you grabbed the fruit you had left and dropped it in. Senshi then grabbed a little bit of seasoning and sprinkled the tart with it.

"Perfect. It's ready."

Man-eating Plants Fruit Tart

You cutted the pieces of it and then placed them on five plates, one of the pieces being a lot smaller than the rest of them.

You handed each plate to everyone, and then settled on one of the seats to eat your own. "It's.. a tart?" Marcille asked hesitantly, observing the food on the plate.

"Looks like it, but it's not. The crust keeps it from burning, don't eat that part."

"Mhm.. it's real salty. Thought it'd taste more sweet." Chilchuck mumbled with his mouth full, looking up at Laios, who took a bite of his own.

"Yeah, it's really good though. Go on, try it. I'm pretty sure you'll like the flavor." Laios said as he looked at Marcille who looked at her own food hesitantly.

"Well.. since [Y/n] made this I'd feel bad if I didn't atleast try it.." she mumbled, making you smile.

"So you're saying that if Senshi made this you wouldn't feel bad about not eating it?" Chilchuck said with his mouth full, catching Marcille off guard.

"That's not what I meant!" She tried to defend herself. Letting out a sigh, she glanced at the food and took a piece of the tart on her spoon and then placed it in her mouth.

After few seconds of chewing, her eyes widened. "Wow.. this is really good! The fertilizer-type fruit is juicy and sweet, while the digesting-type fruit is savory." Marcille said, bringing a piece of the fruit closer to her face to inspect it.

"I bet the animals love these too. Must be hard for the plant to make enough fruit to keep up with demand. What's the point making it if it's just gonna get eaten?"

"Well, it is a carnivorous plant. It makes fruit to attract the animals it eats to survive." Laios quickly answered her question, satisfying Marcille.

"That makes sense. Then.. being delicious is part of the plant's strategy. How clever!" Marcille told herself before looking up at Laios' surprised expression, realising what she has done.

"Now you see the appeal of monsters... aren't they great?" Laios said proudly while a tear fell out his eye dramatically.

"As if!" Marcille quickly exclaimed.

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Once all five of you finished cleaning and washing the dishes, Marcille looked out of the hollow tree, staring at the beautiful view. Then, her gaze landed on the corpse, that still had spit all over it.

"Well, what do we do about him?" Marcille asked, making Laios come near her to stare at him as well.

"We'd lose time dragging him back to town." Laios pointed out. "Maybe I can resurrect him with my magic?"

"Don't risk it. The spell could backfire."

"If we just leave him where people can see him, he'll get picked up eventually." Chilchuck joined the conversation. The three then went out to hang the corpse by a rope, so it could be easily viewed by the corpse retrievers while you and Senshi stayed in the tree.

Once the night came, you heard Marcille groaning and turning around in her bedroll, making you sit up as you had trouble falling asleep yourself.

Once you sat up, you caught Laios' attention, who was currently reading a book. "Can't fall asleep?" He asked you while you nodded tiredly. "Mm yeahh.." you muttered out and then noticed the book in his hands.

"What are you reading?" You stood up and scooted closer to him to look at the contents of the book, greatly surprising Laios.

"Oh, well, just rereading a book where all of the notes I made on monsters are." He said, moving the book so you can get a better view of it.

Your mouth opened wide open at the sight of the drawings of the various monsters he drew. "Wow.. you're so good at drawing!" You complimented him while looking at the drawings.

"You think so?" He said with a sheepish grin. "Mhm! How long have you been studying monsters? The amount of informations you have about each monster is really impressive." You said, your eyes scanning each page of his notebook carefully.

Laios stared at you, his mouth slightly open. You seemed genuinely interested in the monsters as he did, making him smile and his eyes tear up dramatically.

"Well.." you and Laios then spent the night talking about his knowledge about monsters while you mostly listened, sometimes sharing your opinions or information you knew there and there.

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[ A/n ] - woohoo!! Finished episode 1 🥰

And a little bit of [Y/n]s backstory.. ( though this part is just how they met Senshi, their backstory on why they were in the dungeon will be revealed later! ) and sorry if Senshi might have seen a bit out of character in it.

Hopefully youll like it guys bcs I feel like I lost all of my writing skills and it demotivates me so much 💔💔 anyways [Y/n]s character will be a little confusing bcs I lowkey cant write characters personality at all hahahaha.... ( and usually I write the mcs based on my personality so.. )

But yeah!! Also if youd like I can change the mc back to a Gender neutral because writing a female character makes me feel so weird 😭 ( update : I did )

Anyways, in this book there will be much more slow burn than usually in my other books, as I still have no idea on how to write them as yanderes ( like... Chilchuck for example )

And I havent read the manga yet but want to use characters from the manga as love interests ( Mithrun, the Canaries maybe, Sissel and etc. ) so I dont know their character and personality AT ALL.. 💔

Anyways hopefully youll like it anyways, and if you do please leave a vote or comment, it motivates me a lot and makes me know I should continue this book 🙏🙏

Byeee!!

[ 4000 words ]

| Sun 26.5.2024 |

╰┈➤「 Secret achievement unlocked - You have found Marcille Donato! 」

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[ The lesbian elf girlfailure ♡ ]