Chapter 114: Water
Kelly spoke again, mostly to avoid the awkward silence beginning to form between them.
"Huh... no, I wasn’t. I mean it doesn’t matter to us anyway now."
Kei took a deep breath in the middle of her sentence before continuing.
"Better to focus on the present. Like, for fuck’s sake—where even are we?"
"It’s a Dungeon."
Kelly answered instinctively, his voice low and thoughtful, replying to her question without even needing to think.
"And how do you know that?"
Kei immediately gave him a suspicious side-eye, not even bothering to hide the suspicion written all over her face.
"Uhmm..."
Kelly hesitated the moment he noticed the suspicion in Kei’s eyes.
’There’s no way I can tell her a floating screen told me so.’
"I mean... it’s obvious, isn’t it? We were in a dungeon before, so most likely it’s still that. It’s just a guess, chill out."
Kelly explained a little too quickly, his voice carrying an awkward stiffness.
"Uh huh... I’m chill, but you sure aren’t acting very chill."
Kei replied, her suspicions only growing stronger.
"No, you’re overthinking. I’m chill as ice."
Kelly said while very obviously avoiding eye contact.
That alone made him look ten times guiltier.
And when he noticed Kei opening her mouth again, clearly preparing to dig deeper and tear apart his excuse piece by piece, he immediately cut her off before she could.
"I’m thirsty."
Saying that, he turned and started walking toward the river shore without waiting for a response.
"Chill my ass..."
Kei muttered under her breath.
Unfortunately for her, Kelly’s heightened senses picked it up perfectly.
And in response, he walked even faster.
Kelly reached the riverbank and crouched down, staring at his reflection in the clear water. Even now, he still felt amazed every time he looked at himself. The changes were astronomical. Just a few days ago, the figure staring back at him had been lackluster, ordinary, forgettable, but it had still been him. Familiar. Comfortable. Now, the person reflected in the water looked far too radiant, almost unreal. For a moment, he couldn’t even place that face as his own. Yet strangely enough, accepting this version of himself as his new identity didn’t feel so bad either.
’I could get used to looking like this.’
Kelly smirked faintly at the thought. Pushing those thoughts aside, he cupped his hands together, dipped them into the river, and brought the clear water to his lips. He took a sip to satisfy his thirst.
’Huh?’
Something felt off.
He drank again.
And again, he felt it.
’This is strange... I’ve drunk from rivers before. Even when the water has no real taste, rivers usually carry that musty, metallic, earthy flavour... but this...’
There was nothing.
No taste at all.
Even after his thirst was gone, Kelly kept drinking, almost as if he was trying to prove something to himself. Then he looked back at the river, but this time, his attention wasn’t on his reflection.
It was on the water itself.
"Hey, are you done admiring yourself yet?"
Kei’s voice snapped him out of his thoughts again.
"Yes uhh, I mean no."
Kelly fumbled awkwardly, realizing more and more how often he had been getting lost inside his own head lately.
’Maybe I’m just overthinking.’
Suppressing the strange feeling and dismissing it as nothing more than his imagination, Kelly stood up and turned toward Kei. Ignoring the smirk on her face after her jab, he looked back at the flowing river and said, as if suggesting the most obvious thing in the world.
"Let’s walk in the direction of the flow. We don’t have anything to carry water, and who knows when we’ll find another water source. Let’s follow it for a while, and we’ll figure something out on the way."
Kei flinched slightly the moment Kelly mentioned their lack of water storage, though he didn’t notice it at all.
Still, after a brief pause, she simply nodded and replied,
"Sure... not like we have much choice."
Clang!
"Fuck this beast!"
Kelly frowned He steadied himself as his blade scraped uselessly against the thick, rubbery hide of the creature in front of him. They were still deep inside that same damp cavern environment wet stone beneath their feet, the air heavy with moisture and rot. In front of them stood the beast.
A frog.
But nothing like any normal frog. It was as large as an elephant, its bloated body glistening under the faint glow of the cavern’s eerie light, its skin covered in a slippery mucus making any blunted attack against it a stupid incursion. Four eyes stared at them from different angles, twitching independently, while a jagged horn protruded from its skull like a grotesque crown.
"Ahhhhh"
Kelly clicked his tongue, and shouted again running towards the beast with a sword in one hand and other crackling with electricity from the last few exchange the only thing he know worked against it is magic just as he got closed to it he became shocked as he saw the beast do something he didn’t saw it ever do the frog inhale a deep amount of air from its surroundings as he croaked his tonsils ballooning to an exaggerated height however kelly being as close as he was put caution to the back of his mind trusting his back to her after lot of these similar fights.
"Gwhakk"
The frog made a vomiting sound as vomited a lot of the same mucus glistening its skin on top of kelly.
"What the...fuck yuck"
Kelly felt like vomiting the disgusting smell already coming from him seem to be doubling maybe just to get away from his disgusting circumstances, his mind drifting for just a second to the decision he made last week.
’Following the river... yeah, great decision.’
So much had happened since then. Kelly wouldn’t even know where to start the only thing he could be sure of it was by far the most closest to living for survival he has come to. A week, only a week however for him it felt like hell stretched for eternity. The frog seeing kelly trapped attacked with its slimy tongue but for kelly who got hit by it once knew just how terrible it was if he didn’t defend he knew broken bones would be last of his worry but the slimy mucus trapped him regardless he took up a defensive stance pointing his blade upwards at least hoping to cut its tongue once and for all at spence of himself. As he waited for that attack His memories started hitting again.
At first they walked for god knows how long but they kept on walking in that same direction hoping to find something but their surroundings never changed they didn’t encounter any beast on their first day only hunger and ache in their legs was their constant companion.
"How long"