It was the next day or night? I'm not too sure, it's hard to tell how long it's been in the dungeon.

"Ahh.. I hope I have the chance to wash my hair soon." cried out Marcille as she finished washing her face, "What about you, Y/n?"

"Honestly, I wouldn't mind taking a cold shower."

"Here is a tip for you guys," Chilchuck said, "Shave it off. You'll feel great."

"No thanks, I love my hair."

"Would you stop being mean?!" Marcille then turned to Senshi, "You want to wash your beard right Senshi?"

"...."

"When was the last time you washed it?!" She shouted as she grabbed his shoulder. "Let's wash it! Let's wash it right now!" She suddenly turned to me, startling me for a bit.

"Y/n, Utta told you the importance of hair to you?"

"Um she might have mentioned it, I probably forgot it."

Marcille signs, "Hair is actually pretty important, magically speaking. Taking good care of your hair is one of the basic tenets of magic." She turned to Senshi, "With a beard like that, my support spells might not even work on you!"

Senshi just side-eye Marcille. She went to her bag and started looking for something. "I know! I have some good soap! Let's wash your beard with that, and I'll braid it for you!" I look back at Senshi and imagine him with some funny looking styles.

"Huh? Ahh! Of course! Back then..." Marcille cried out, "That was expensive! Nooo..!" Chilchuck grabbed the last of his things and headed out the door ignoring Marcille crying, "Shall we go?"

We finally made it to the fourth floor. The whole place was surrounded by water, I couldn't help but crouch down to look at the water. There was something mesmerizing about it that I couldn't look away.

I wonder how deep it goes? Imagine if I jumped in.

Please don't. You can't swim.

I stood up and turned to the others and saw Marcille tapping her staff to her feet and jumping into the water. Instead of sinking to the bottom she stood on top of the water.

I could be Jesus...

"See pretty neat, right?" Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Senshi violently shaking while stuttering.

"I won't do it!!" Senshi threw himself on the floor and kicked his legs around like a child. "No! No! No! No!"

Wow I didn't expect this from him.

"He's not going to listen." Chilchuck signed, "Lets just tie a rope and pull him along." Laois and I went up to Senshi and held him down.

"Cast the spell while we hold him down." Laios spoke as we struggled with the thrashing dwarf.

"Huh!? That's inhumane.."

"It's the only way to cross the water wearing armor. Boats are dangerous."

"People so easily fall to the primrose path. It only takes a moment to rust-"

"Take that!" Marcille quickly slammed her staff into Senshi's face, "See that wasn't so bad, was it?"

"Ye-..how dare ye..!"

"I don't understand you Senshi. What's so horrible about magic? You know, casting spells takes more effort than you give credit for."

"Ye all use sorcery too carelessly. That is the part I don't understand."

"..."

"..."

Well this is awkward...

"Well, what's done is done. You never know you might like it." Laios went behind Senshi and shoved him into the water. Senshi was fine until he started slowly sinking. I quickly grab him and pull him out before he drowns.

"What!? Why isn't it working properly?" Marcille grabs a strand of his beard, "It's your hair isn't it! Ugh, what is this!? It's like a solid lump of anti-magic?"

Laios walked up to us and started to feel his hair, "It's caked up with fat and blood from all sorts of monsters." Gross.

"Eek!! Wash it out! Now!"

"It take more than just water to-"

"No need." Senshi stood up with arm up, stopping Laios, "I'll get across the water my way."

What is he going to do? Is he going to use a monster to make a boat?

Senshi walks up to the edge and places the mimic shell into the water. Bubbles loathed to the top and a horse with seaweed for its mane came out of the water. Is that a-

"A Kelpie!"

"Wow! I've never seen one this close!" I took a step forward before Laois put his arm out stopping me from getting closer, "Stand back! It's dangerous."

"It's fine. She's harmless. Anne always comes to visit me when I'm fishing."

Anne?

"She comes for the fish guts and bones I scatter. She's docile."

Anne is eating his hair..

"She eats fish..?"

"Kelpies are omnivores."

"I've always wondered whether I could cross the lake with her."

"Huh?"

"Is that even safe?" I whisper to Laios.

"T-That would be absolutely splendid!" Marcille yelled with literal stars in her eyes. How is she doing that?!

"I'm against it." Huh? That surprised me coming from Laois. I thought he might be all over that shit.

"Monsters are dangerous. Especially the charming ones. Living things take the best shape to achieve what they need." I stare at Laois, taking in his words. "Kelpies make people careless, then pull them into the water. People can never know what monsters are really thinking."

"..."

"I've known Anne for as long as the Golems. I know her a lot better than I know ye." Senshi went up to Anne and got ready to hop on. Until Anne turned to look at me with a crazy look in her eyes. In a blink of an eye, she lunged at me and bit into my arm making me cry out in pain before pulling me into the water. SHIII-

"Y/N!!!"

The water was freezing. Anne was taking me deeper into the water, I tried pulling my arm away but she had a tight grip. Blood was spreading more into the water making it hard to see. I have to get out of here. I'm sorry Anne! I punched Anne in the face with my other arm making her let go. Anne bared its teeth at me, ready to attack me again. I was getting ready to defend myself before I was pushed away. Senshi placed the mimic shell on Anne's mouth, blocking her attack. I saw Laios holding Anne down before Senshi finished her off. RIP Anne.

Senshi and Laios both took a hold on me as we were all pulled out to the surface. I cough out all the water out of my lungs before laying down holding on to my arm. "Shit are you okay?"

I open my eye and saw Chilchuck look down at me, "..What does it look like~"

"Don't sass me."

"Y/n! Is your arm okay?!" Marcille ran up to me, holding my arm up gently," You are losing a lot of blood, but it doesn't look like your bone is broken.."

"Looks like Anne took a bite out of you."

"Ahh! Shut up Chilchuck! Don't tell me that!" I shut my eyes, not wanting to see my arm at this state.

" Here let me heal you right up."

"Is this going to hurt like last time?"

"With Marcille probably."

"Shush Chilchuck! Anyways~ here I go."

"AHHH! Why is it burning!?"

"It just means it's working."

"Hm..a strand of hair?" Rin turns to her leader Kabru, "It's a spell to repel ghosts. Apparently someone else really was here."

Rin holds out the strand to the kobold, Kuro. Kuro sniffed the hair strand then sniffed the floor. "Elf... two tall-men..,half-foot.., dwarf..hm one of the tall-man smells weird and they ate a meal here."

"They ate a meal!?" Kabru yelled before stopping to think. Wait, what did Kuro mean by smell weird? Uhh nevermind. I'll think about this later. "Who would do that? Let's go find them."

"Hold on just a minute." One of the corpse hunters called out, "This ain't a charity." Kabru dug into his bag and pulled out a bag full of coins and tossed it to the hunter before making his way out with his party. The party made it to the fourth floor, Kabru looked around.

"I don't see anyone around." He turned to Kuro, "How's the scent trail?"

"Hard to tell..."

"I guess it's tough with the water." Rin could you cast a waterwalk spell?"

"I really hate this level." Mickbell sighed looking at the deep water. "I hate the feeling of not knowing what's beneath my feet."

"Well, there's no traps here, so we can concentrate on the monsters. Let's be careful and keep moving." Kabru looked back at his party, "Monsters are nothing to fear if you deal with them properly! What kind of monsters live around here?"

"Krakens."

"Kelpies."

"Mermaids...and slime, maybe?"

"Tentacles, undines.."

"So long as we know how to handle them, none of these monsters should be a threat by themselves...No matter what comes at us, let's keep our cool and take care of business!"

"All-right!"

...

..

.

I sat back and watched as Marcille was mixing the Kelpie fat and Senshi cutting up the kelpie meat.

"How's your arm?" Laios sat down next to me, looking worried.

"It's fine. Marcille heals pretty quick, but I don't think I could get used to the pain." Laios laughs a bit before turning back at Senshi and Marcille. We both sat there in complete silence, until I remembered what he said about the kelpie. "Do you really think that all monsters are bad."

"Hmm.. it's hard to really know for sure. Couple of them are harmless, but the majority of them aren't. We don't really understand how monsters think or what they are truly capable of."

"What if there is a monster out there that thinks the same way we do."

"That would be amazing! Imagine what we can learn!"

I looked over to the water and noticed what seemed to be bodies floating in the water. "Hey Laios, I think I see something over there." Laios looked where I was pointing at, "I think those are bodies?"

"I hope those aren't people." Laios spoke to Chilchuck and I who randomly stood next to me. Where did he come from!? "Let's go look."

"Do we have to?"

"Unless you want to stay here with them." I pointed to Marcille and Senshi, who were now mixing and cutting aggressively.

"...let's go."

We made our way over to the unconscious group. While Chilchuck and Laios went to check what spilled on the water, I went over to one and flipped them over to their back. This person had dark skin, thick black curly hair and was wearing armor. This guy look familiar? "Hey isn't this the guy we saw on the third floor?"

"Oh yeah! I recognize this kobold."

"How did they get ahead of us?"

"Maybe when Laios went inside the living paintings."

..

.

As I pulled the half-foot out of the water I was startled by Chilchuck's screaming. I put the half-foot with his party and went to check on him, I found him with Laios looking at a dead fishman.

"Looks like they took a few fishman with them."

Cover your ears, now.

Without questioning him, I cover my ears. Laios looked at me confused until he noticed Chilchuck wandering around in one direction. He slammed his hand together near Chilchuck's ears, snapping him back to reality.

What was that?

Mermaids

Oh...I guess we have to deal with this before they become trouble. We started walking away from the others to lure the mermaid away, when Laios started singing with the mermaids. The mermaids were shocked as I was, I guess they didn't expect someone to join along. They grew irritated with Laios and dive into the water. Wow, tough crowd...

"Aw...they wouldn't sing with me to the end...I worked so hard to learn their song too!" Laios sadly looking where they disappear.

"Having some stranger suddenly start singing along?" Chilchuck continued walking off, "I'm sure it was pretty shocking for them."

I went up to Laios and patted his back, "Don't worry Laios. I thought your singing was very lovely."

"...thank you."

..

.

"That should do it. I hope the corpse retrievers find them soon." I looked at the water, "What should we do about the barley?"

"Do we pick it up for them?"

"I doubt they want it."

"Then we'll take it." Laios bent down to pick the barley, "That should make Marcille happy."

I see Laios freeze up when he sees the dead fishman.....wait a minute!

"Laios! Noo!"

"Absolutely not!!" Both Chilchuck and I yelled out.

"I hadn't said anything yet..!" Laios held his cheek when Chilchuck smacked him.

"We promised we wouldn't eat demi-humans."

"..What is a demi-human really?"

"HUh?"

"What kind of question is that!?" After a lot of convincing and Laios pulling on Chilchuck, we manage to get Laios away from eating the fishman , or so we thought. We went back to find Marcille and Senshi still going at it. They still aren't done yet.. Laios got up and went to grab Senshi's pot, "I'm hungry. Let's make something."

Laios filled the pot with water and added the barley. He then places shredded mimic meat and some water-weed? Wait, where did he get that?..No he didn't..

"Hold it." Chilchuck stood behind Laios, "That stuff was growing on the fish-man's head, wasn't it?"

"Yes, but..this is really just a plant. It has roots, but they're just for stability. It doesn't absorb nutrients through them. Without it they will just look more like fish ... .Is that still not okay with your 'feelings'?"

I looked over to Chilchuck who looks like he's getting more gray hair. He just sighed, "Fine,fine. Do whatever you want."

Laios just gave us a grin and went back cooking, which I don't know if it looks cute or creepy?

It's creepy, looks like he's going to eat you next.

Shush.

-

"Marcille, Senshi! Lunch is ready!" I called out to them.

"That time already?"

"Where did you get the barley?"

"It belonged to some dead adventurers over there."

Uh oh..

"What were you thinking!"

"Well, you already made it, so there's no help for it."

Oh nevermind..

We all started eating the food, "There's something that pops in here. What is it?" Marcille asked.

"Fish eggs, maybe? They might have been on the water-weed." Fish eggs? I didn't remember seeing Laios put any?

"Hm, It's good!"

"Isn't it? I'm glad I put them in."

Hold up what! Chilchuck stood up and grabbed onto Laios and I. "Both of us c'mere a second." He pulled us away from the other two and pushed Laios against the wall with Marcille's staff.

"Those are fish-men eggs, aren't they!? I bet fish-men keep their eggs in the water-weed on their head to protect them, right!?"

"Do they? You sure know a lot, Chilchuck." Is playing dumb?

"Listen you-"

"What's the matter?" Marcille came out from around the corner.

"It's nothing! Right guys?!" I turn to look at them.

"Yep."

"Yeah it's nothing."

"..."

"..."

"Marcille, that stuff...is it good?" Chilchuck asked.

"Uh-huh!"

Welp if Marcille likes it then I guess we don't have to worry. Marcille walked ahead of us and I stood in front of them. "We can't let Marcille know she ate eggs from a fishman, this will be our secret alright. We are taking this to the grave."

"Yes ma'am."

"She'll kill us if she finds out."

-

So turns out Marcille was making soap for Senshi with the kelpie's fat, that is actually sweet for her to do. We all watched as Marcille started washing his hair, at one point he looked like a wet poodle with his hair all wet. After she finished drying and brushing his hair she was finally done. Now Senshi's hair looks more fluffy. He looks like a sheep. Big fluffy sheep. I hold in my smile before turning away.

Marcille began tapping her staff on Senshi, "If this doesn't work now, I don't know what we'll do." Senshi walked up to the water and started to jump up and down. Oh great he's not sinking.

"Oh good!"

"Now we'll be able to cross together." Both Marcille and Laios went up the Senshi.

"I see...doing this has shown me one thing. Walking on water feels pretty nice. Thank you, Marcille."

"Uh-huh.."

...

.

"The soap stings my eyes."

"Agh! There's more of them!" We were all walking further into the fourth floor when we were caught up in a swarm of bladefish. I dodge one of them before it cuts my face. I should really get a weapon.

"Let me handle this! I'll get rid of all of them!" Marcille yelled out. I soon recognized the spell she was chanting, "Wait! Marcille-"

"No! Stop!" She casted an underwater explosion killing all the fish in an instant. We all flew back due to the impact and I covered my head when the bladefishes started falling back down on us. "Look out! Ow!"

"I told ye to stop!" Senshi stomps over to Marcille, "No more underwater explosions ye hear! Yer killing too many fish!"

"What!?"

Senshi went on about the importance of the bladefish and the dungeon ecosystem. Then he starts arguing with Marcille, I zone out and stare at the dead bladefish.

Something is coming.

What?

"Y/n look out!" I felt someone pulling me back as fishmen started leaping out of the water.

"Are you alright?" I turned and saw Laios and Chilchuck next to me. I nodded before looking back at the water. That's weird, usually fishmen come out of the water to attack adventurers but they just ignore us. Unless...they were running from something. I looked closely at the water and noticed a dark shape getting bigger.

"Something is coming this way."

"Huh?"

A giant squid came out of the water and crashed over us, making us jump back. What the f-

"A squid? No, an octopus?"

"It's a Kraken!" Laios shouted over to us, "That is a problem. They're big monsters anyways and this one's several times bigger than normal..!" WHat how big do they get!

"So what's the plan?" I asked.

"We'll draw it out and then Marcille can use her spells." We all started to run as the kraken was chasing after us. It swam past and stood in front of us, while it was distracted Marcille cast an explosion on the krakens head. Instead of the kraken dying, it just looked over to us clearly mad. Well we're dead. Immediately, the kraken starts to attack us with its tentacles.

I found myself captured in the tentacles and looking straight at the kraken's eye. "Uhh..nice kraken." The kraken took me away from its eye and was pulling me towards its mouth. Uh oh...

"Wait where did Y/n go?"

"Laios help mee!!" I cried out, trying to pull myself out. Laios and Chilchuck found their way over to me and grabbed my arm pulling me away from its mouth.

"We have to do something before we all get killed." Shouted Chilchuck.

"My sword isn't strong enough to cut off the tentacle."

"Can't you summon your creatures to help!"

"There is no dirt here! Just water!"

I looked down at the water. Would it work?! I don't know! I never tried using other materials before. It should be the same, right? I still have the water walking spell on me. I pulled my hand away from them and placed it on the water. Okay think what can help us right now!

-

Laios and Chilchuck both watch as Y/n place her hand on the water, then they hear rushing of water. Tentacles that seem to be made out of water appear and wrap themselves around the kraken. Laios who was still holding onto Y/n took this chance and pulled her out of the krakens grasp. They watch as the kraken tried to fight back against the tentacles, but it hold the kraken on a tight grip. Senshi sees this and jumps on the kraken before stabbing it between the eyes with the merfolk weapon he found. Sensing that the kraken was finally done, the tentacles let go and made their way to Y/n. Who had her hand on her chest trying to calm down her heart before she had a heart attack.

-

Holy-shit!! It actually worked!

"I can't believe it worked?!"

"You made another kraken to save us from another kraken!?" Chilchuck grabbed onto my shoulder.

"So cool! You made a kraken out of water!" Laios went up to the tentacle and started touching it. "If the tentacle is all we can see I'm pretty sure it's much bigger than that one."

I went up to the tentacle that Laios was touching and placed my hand gently on it, "..Thanks for helping. You are free to go." I watch as it turns back to water, and I felt dizzy if it wasn't for Laios I would have fallen.

"Y/n?! What's wrong?"

"Shit your nose is bleeding?"

"I think...I'm going to sleep now...."

...

..

.

I woke up to the smell of something cooking, I got up and saw Senshi grilling some food. He noticed I was up and waved his hand over to me. "Good yer up. How are ye feeling?"

I made my way to him and sat down, "I'm fine. I guess making a giant kraken took a lot of energy." I look at the food on the grill, "What is this?"

"It's a parasite from the kraken." Oh okay...wait! A parasite!? How long was I out?!

"Would ye like to help me cook it?"

"...sure." oh well.

As I was helping I spotted Laios looking at raw parasites, I narrowed my eyes at him. He was looking at it so intensely, in a split second he put the whole piece in his mouth. I jumped and quickly ran over to him, "Laios spit that out now!"

I tried to use my hands to pry open his mouth to get the raw parasite out, but he wouldn't budge. "You can't just eat raw food, you could get sick or something! Don't you dare swallow it!" He just shook his head away from me and swallowed the parasite.

"Why?!"

"..I just wanted to see what it tasted like."

..what am I going to do with you

..
.

"It's done!" We all grabbed a serving of the cooked parasite and took a bite. Wow this is pretty tasty! Would you like a bite?

I don't need to eat.

Just a bite?

..Fine, just keep your eyes closed alright.

I felt the sky beast take control of my body. When he takes over my body the only thing changes is the colors of my eyes. It's been awhile since he done it, the last time they did was when Utta died.

So how was it?

It's good..

"Wait, no! You ate it raw?!" I looked over and saw Marcille yelling at Laios.

"Just a little. It's fine, I'd already told Y/n." Marcille looked shocked and looked over at me, "You knew and didn't stop him!"

"I tried but it's like trying to stop a dog from eating something they shouldn't eat. His jaw just lock up."

"Hey look, the fishes are eating the kraken." Chilchuck pointed at the water.

"Now that it's dead, the number of mid-sized monsters should rebound over time." Laios went to get up but suddenly he fell back down holding his stomach in pain. "..hn..my stomach feels sort of off..Ow! OW!"

"What's wrong? Are you okay?"

"I thought so." Senshi walked over to Laios, "Ye caught a parasite from that giant parasite."

"I knew it!" I shouted and pointed at Laios, who was crouching in pain. "I told you eating that will make you sick!"

"They don't feed off of humans, but they do poke holes in your stomach, so it hurts real bad..Well, we'll just have to wait for the parasite to die."

"..won't I die first?.."

"Maybe just hit him with healing magic every so often." Chilchuck asked Marcille.

"I could do that."

"I guess that means we are going to stay here for a while."

"Now that I think about it...the fishman eats the bladefish, kraken eats the fishman. We killed the kraken..and now the smaller fish are eating it. Laios ate the kraken's parasite and now he's got a parasite from a parasite burrowing into his stomach. Earlier, I was getting all high and mighty talking about 'protecting the ecosystem.' But we're already become part of the great circle of life in this dungeon." Wow that deep.

-

Laios tried to say something...but the overwhelming stomach pain and nausea wiped all thoughts from his mind. For an entire night, it felt like his stomach was being carved open from the inside...and thus, Laios swore never to eat raw parasite again...

-

I lay awake watching as Laios grovel in pain as he slept. I grab a rag and my water from my bag and crouch over to him. I wiped the sweat off his face with the wet rag. Isn't there something we can do to help him?

It's his fault for eating the raw parasite in the first place.

Come please. I know you could help.

..Fine..but you need to find these ingredients, I know where they are.

..
.

"Laios, wake up."

"..huh."

"Oh good you aren't dead yet." I help Laios sit up before handing him a cup, "Here drink this."

"..what is this..?" I watched as Laios drank the "juice".

"It's to help with your stomach pain." I took the empty cup away and laid him back down on his bed. "You should start feeling better soon."

"..okay..thank you.."

"Good night Laios."

EXTRA: Kelpies

A beautiful horse stands by the water, if you carelessly mount it...you'll be dragged under before you know it...

"And the rider's blood and liver floats to the surface, it says." Laois read out from his book about monsters.

Huh..

Wait..what..

"Why the liver?" Senshi asked.

"Apparently, they don't eat it."

"Why not!? Livet is very nutritious!" Senshi yelled out, "It has lots of vitamins and iron! Iron is hard to get."

Hold up, I could've died..

"They probably don't like it." Chilchuck looks at Marcille.

"Lots of people don't. It has a pretty unique texture."

"Is no one going to mention that I could have been eaten by a horse!"

"There's no room for picky eating in the wild!"

Marcille turns to Laios, "Laios, say something to him."

"Maybe because eating raw liver is dangerous?"

"..."

"True..! Eat raw liver, and you risk hepatitis E, food poisoning and parasites. It's best to cook it well, all the way through. Anne... you always were a clever horse."

"Why are guys ignoring me!"

AN: Jesus this chapter took forever to write. I writing this base on the manga since the anime is not completed and I got the chapters 14-16 mixed up and had to rewrite it.