Haru hummed a soft tune to himself as he slowly yet steadily made his way down the spiral staircase down to the first floor of the dungeon. After his training session and being knocked unconscious by the iron fisted Lunoire the young white haired boy had slept for a majority of the day. By the time that he had woken up it was already dark outside and the moon was full in the night sky.
Tossing and turning for several minutes Haru found himself unable to return to his slumber, so instead he forced himself out of bed. At first he was not particularly sure what he was going to do, but when he looked outside the one window in the attic and saw the Tower of Babel looming off in the distance he knew what he was going to do that night.
Return to the dungeon.
Haru debated in his own mind while he packed his equipment if returning to the dungeon was a wise idea, but begrudgingly Haru had to admit that going to the dungeon in the first place was a rather rash and poor decision.
But Haru did not particularly have many other options left, despite all of the applications that Haru submitted to multiple familias to try and get into any one that would accept him, he did not receive a single acceptance response. That was not even factoring in the stone cold fact that he was beyond broke, if it was not for the generosity of Mama Mia, Syr and the other Hostess Staff Haru would have been sleeping on the street and starving.
The young white haired boy could have simply gotten another job, finding a place to work in Orario would not be particularly difficult given enough looking, however, Haru had no desire to be anything other than an adventurer. So Haru would go to the one place where he could become what he wanted to be, the dungeon.
Once he had finished gathering his equipment Haru set off to the dungeon, exiting the Hostess through a window on the second floor. Leaving the window propped open ever so slightly with a small rag draped over the windowsill. When Haru returned to the Hostess he could stack up a few of the empty barrels and crates in the alley to be able to boost himself high enough to crawl back inside with the pub through the window.
He made his way through the empty streets of Orario, passing only the odd occasional person that would give the white haired boy a small curious gaze before going about their own nightly business.
Arriving at the Tower of Babel a fair while later Haru seemed to have a small bit of luck as no guards were currently stationed at the entrance to the dungeon, they were probably switching guard shifts and Haru took the opportunity to enter without anyone around to see him. Though weirdly enough Haru felt as though someone was watching him, it was an odd tingling sensation that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end and gave the boy goosebumps along his skin.
Haru simply shook off the feeling and chalked it up to just being a bit nervous as he started to walk down the staircase towards the first floor. But it was not just a bit nervous, if Haru had to confess to someone at that moment he would admit that he was terrified. The dungeon had nearly killed him during his last little expedition and it was very possible that he could die for real if he was not careful.
That was exactly what Haru had to be, cautious and constantly on guard. Additionally inside of his backpack Haru had brought several items that she had thought would prove valuable and even essential in the dungeon. He had packed several of the small paint grenades that Syr had purchased for him and carefully bundled them up in a spare shirt.
Additionally just in case Haru got into a situation similar to the last time he was smart and had packed three small glass vials that contained healing potions. Apparently during the morning when Ryuu had found Haru bleeding out on the front steps of the Hostess Anya had been sent to the closet potion shop and purchased several healing potions to assist in his treatment. The spares had been left just in case Haru's condition worsened and he needed more medical help.
He had grabbed the spare potions from the drawer of his nightstand and brought them with him just in case of emergency, only to be used in the case of a life and death situation.
Haru was snapped out of his inner thoughts and paused for a second, first he turned his head around and felt as though he was being looked at again but just as before when he looked back there was no one there. When he looked back straight however he did see a group of people walking up the staircase, five adventurers in total that walked along up the stairs with an incredibly casual aura emulating off of them.
While to anyone else the presences of others would normally be rather calmly or comforting even in a way, however to Haru it only brought him paranoia and caution. If they stopped Haru, started to question him for whatever reason and something accidentally slipped out in the heat of the moment it would not be a good thing.
So as Haru walked along down the steps he grabbed the edge of his jacket's collar and hemmed it up as much as possible, moving from the center of the staircase to the right side the group of adventurers had noticed Haru and moved to the left side of the staircase as to pass each other without colliding.
As Haru was just passing the small group of adventurers unintentionally he tensed up a bit and turned his head to the side slightly, as they passed each other and Haru thought himself in the clear one of the groups members called out calmly to the young white haired boy.
"Hey, you good?" one unfamiliar voice asked and Haru took a moment to think up a proper response, he turned around and waved his hands in front of him a little bit and tried to force a confident smile.
"O-oh, yeah I am all good here…" Haru tried to say as confidently as possible to the small group of adventurers. As Haru was now simply a few feet away from the adventurers he was able to get a far closer look at each of them and take note of several characteristics of each one.
The first man, the one that had spoken to Haru, wore heavy plate mail armor, smudged and dirtied by a combination of blood and other bodily fluids. Despite his heavily armored appearance, his face was unusually young. So much so that were it not for his highly developed physique, Haru compared the young man to himself, though he was likely nearing his sixteenth year. He had wild blond hair, with smooth and delicate features. His eyes were a warm chocolate brown that betrayed a mischievous twinkle.
The second man was much thinner, with a build similar to a man that was more of a ranged fighter. Making the bow that was slung over his back even more fitting, and his attire consisted of primarily leather and chainmail padding. His auburn hair was slicked back into a mullet, and his expression was perpetually smug. His face consisted of many harsh angles, not unlike that of a bird of prey, and the will to hunt was ever present within his jade green eyes. The man had leaned up against the wall and seemed to be rather uninterested in the white haired boy.
The third man was far stranger than the previous two, for his most noticeable feature was the bright orange feline ears that poked out of the top of his spiked hairdo. A black and orange striped tail swished from side to side behind him, leading up to a pair of tattered trousers and nothing else. The muscles of his torso and lower half were so incredibly dense that they could practically count as a set of armor themselves. His monstrous hands were tightly wrapped with sullied cloth, dark red with the blood dripping from the cloth strips which was no doubt from whatever monsters they had previously encountered. Despite the apparent battle he just had, there was a lazy, easy going look to his amber eyes, and he ideally tracked a fly that buzzed over his head, most likely attracted to the gore still stained on him.
There was a woman behind the feline man, and she was far shorter and stouter than any of the men present. Her biceps were bare, absolutely rippling with muscle as she strangled the grip of her one headed hammer. Her face was frozen in a scowl, eyes black as onyx burning a hole into whatever she stared off at. She wore the attire of a blacksmith, soot even present on certain parts of her apron and steel plated skirt. Her fiery red hair was braided into many intricate knots and shapes, trailing behind her diminutive form as she muttered to herself about wanting to just get back above ground and leap into bed.
The final member of the party was a quiet but polite looking young woman, though her daisy yellow eyes seemed cynical and uncaring. She wore priestly robes, the insignia of an unknown familia embroidered upon her chest on the left side in fine gold thread. Her staff was made of a combination of snake wood and silvery metal topped off with, of all things, the pine cone of a tree. Her hair was neatly trimmed and cut short, barely brushing past the tips of her ears, though the dazzling platinum blonde color was still present. The pointed tips of an elf's shot through the locks of her hair, unintentionally creating bangs that framed her rigid and stone cold features.
"You sure, you looked a little uneasy?" the man in heavy plate armour and blonde hair said as he raised his right hand up and rubbed the back of his neck while rolling his head around in a small semi-circle.
Haru would admit that he was a bit uneasy, going into the dungeon again still had him on edge and being stopped by the small group of adventurers had only raised those feelings of anxiety. So Haru took again just a few quick seconds to try and come up with a reasonable enough reason for his anxiousness. "Well…. this is actually the first time that I am going to the dungeon at night…" Haru said as he shifted in place slightly and scratched his neck for a brief moment. "So I would be lying if I said I was not a little bit nervous…" he continued with a small nervous laugh to try and ease the tension that weighed heavy in the air.
"Ah, I see I see… that makes sense, I understand why you would be so nervous now." the man said as he smiled a little bit to try and help relieve the white haired boy's tension a little bit.
The female Elf of the group took a small step in Haru direction and stood next to the man in the plate armour, which Haru at this point believed to be the leader of the group as he was the only person to speak. Though that changed as the Elf spoke calmly and brushed away some of the blonde bangs that clouded her vision. "Your unease is not without merit, at night the number of monsters is usually quite higher because there are less adventurers around to keep their numbers in check."
"But that shouldn't be too big of a problem, not after we passed through." the imposing muscular man with animalistic features said rather proudly as he pounded his two closed fists together, sending some small specks of blood flying in the air. Several small drops landing on some of the brown leather armour of the man armed with a bow, all the man did in retaliation was make a small "tsk" sound and turn his head away from the rest of the group.
"Yeah, Barret is right…" the leader of the small group of adventurers said as he placed his hands on his hips and stood up straight. "We were coming back from a dive that lasted a little longer than we had originally planned, so we cleared out most of the monsters that were loitering around the first few floors. Apologies if you don't get that great of a haul tonight…" the man added the last sentence with a rather apologetic tone.
"Oh, well that's not your fault! Besides, there was no way you could have known that I was going to go to the dungeon. If anything it's probably for the best anyway, I need to take it slow…" Haru said as he waved off the man's apology and tapped his left foot against the stone steps as he was becoming increasingly impatient. The group seemed to be rather friendly and polite, but Haru did not have long before he would have to head back and make it back to the Hostess before sunrise. With how early the staff often woke up in the morning the element of time was not on his side.
"Alright, we won't keep you held up any longer. Get down there and get some stones!" the assumed leader of the small group of adventurers started with a confident smile on his face as he started to turn around and give Haru a small wave. The other three members of the party had already started to make their way up the stairs while the Elf stood there for a moment and gave Haru a small nod. "Stay safe…" the young woman said as she started to turn around and paused for another moment.
"Just… remember that there is no shame in living to adventure another day, so be careful…" the Elven woman added right as the smalle gaggle of adventurers stopped a few dozen stairs ahead of her as they had noticed that she was not directly with the group. "Hey, Arya are you coming or what?" the man with the bow slung over his shoulder yelled out in an almost annoyed tone.
"Coming!" the Elven woman called out as she spun her head around for a second and turned it just as quickly back to Haru with a small warming smile "Stay safe." she said calmly before spinning around and climbing the staircase two steps at a time until she reached her comrades and continued their climb up the stone steps.
Haru turned around and with the small rather stressful encounter now quite literally behind him Haru continued to make his way down the steps and eventually he reached the bottom, with one final small step he left the stairs and officially entered the first floor of the dungeon for a second time.